


Bits and Pieces

by Animedemon01



Category: Carmen Sandiego (Cartoon 2019)
Genre: Companion Piece
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-01-06
Updated: 2020-07-29
Packaged: 2021-02-27 04:34:27
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 13
Words: 35,225
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22151122
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Animedemon01/pseuds/Animedemon01
Summary: Companion piece to "Scars Don't Fade" going into detail about characters and events mentioned.
Relationships: El Topo | Antonio/Le Chèvre | Jean-Paul, Moose Boy/Otter Man (Carmen Sandiego)
Comments: 5
Kudos: 28





	1. Bobcat

**Author's Note:**

> In order to understand this fic, it is important to read "Scars Don't Fade": https://archiveofourown.org/works/22091269/chapters/52721815
> 
> Each chapter will have its own trigger warning, please heed them.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> An exploration of why Bobcat left VILE and her relationship with Shadow-San.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Trigger warnings for this chapter: Mentions of drug abuse.

She enrolled in VILE academy under the name Victoria Pride. It wasn’t the name she had been given, but one she had taken. He real name had context to it, a context she would rather avoid being asked about. Victoria Pride, on the other hand, was a nobody, and that was exactly who she wanted to be.

Something about what she was learning at the academy just felt right, as if she had finally found her purpose in life. Despite not being the most physically intimidating person, her medical knowledge and survival skills far surpassed those of the average student, and it was evident that they would have a place for her after she graduated.

She found companionship in the form of her fellow students, especially with a Japanese man by the name of Suhara. Despite considering themselves to be friends, they always found themselves in competition. They both enjoyed clashing with each other, and still remained friends throughout.

Eventually, this relationship turned sexual. VILE had always discouraged romantic relationships, not wanting feelings to get in the way. Their relationship was far from romantic, however, simply being one of passion. They both wanted to feel something, and the physical intimacy allowed them to do that. As far as either one of them was concerned, the sex was just friends helping each other out.

At graduation she took the name of Bobcat, and he took the name Shadow. While they both had a steady streak of successes, Bobcat’s vices kept her from competing with Shadow. As the years went on, the sex simply wasn’t enough to numb the pain anymore, so she turned to alcohol and prescription pills.

Her relationship with Shadow didn’t change; they were still friends, and the sex never turned into anything more than meaningless pleasure. She knew Shadow worried about the path she had taken, but other than telling her that her actions were affecting her performance on a single occasion, he never said anything.

Bobcat didn’t hate Shadow for killing Wolfe. Sure, he had been their favorite teacher, but he was a traitor and it had to be done. Wolfe knew what he was in for when he joined VILE, and now, with everything he knew, he couldn’t just leave.

Bobcat was aware of VILE having memory erasing technology in some capacity but knew well enough to understand why they wouldn’t use. For starters, in order to erase Wolfe’s memory, a nearly impossible task when it came to someone of his skill. Second, Bobcat wasn’t sure if Dr. Bellum had even worked out all the kinks in the technology yet. The technology had been originally developed by Dr. Bellum’s predecessor, and the first time it had been used, it ended up taking the life of the operative whose memories they wanted to erase. Dr. Bellum had become Head Faculty due to her predecessor taking his own life after the incident.

When Shadow came back from that assignment, he was a different person. Anything that had been left from his exciting and rebellious side was now replaced with a strange stoic calmness. When he took Wolfe’s now empty seat, he also took on the name Shadow-San.

At some point around the time Shadow-San became head faculty, a baby had been brought to the island. Thanks to her constant assignments and her penchant for self-medicating, Bobcat couldn’t remember if it had happened before or after.

Bobcat never doubted the child would eventually join the ranks of VILE. Little Black Sheep’s young age meant the she never questioned the ethics of stealing, to her it was just a game. Bobcat had mentioned this to Shadow-San, but he always dismissed it, saying the child was far too reckless. He seemed to believe that her behavior was more than just a product of her age and refused to change his opinion.

Bobcat spent over 20 years in VILE before she began to question it. In fact, if it hadn’t been for one particular incident, she would have likely never left.

She never quite figured out why they sent her and four other operatives on an assignment that needed only one or two. Everything had been going smoothly, until three of the operatives suddenly started attacking her. She had told the fourth operative, Fallen Angel, to run, but instead the younger woman insisted on staying and fighting alongside Bobcat.

They managed to kill the three rogue operatives, but Angel had been mortally wounded in the struggle. Bobcat had done her best to save the operative, but her efforts just weren’t enough. Despite having been told that there was nothing she could have done to save the younger woman, Bobcat still felt responsible. If only she had protected Angel better.

The death certainly had its effects on Bobcat, but the way it had been handled was what really caused her to become disillusioned with VILE. Fallen Angel had been such a sweet person, and despite having seen some of the worst that humanity had to offer before her time with VILE, she still saw the good in her fellow operatives. On top of that, she had idolized Bobcat, which only made her death hit all that harder.

The loss was felt all around the island, especially with in her class and her group of friends. That graduating class had been dubbed “The Unluckiest Year” due to all the bad things that had happened to them. Between Angel and her five roommates alone, there had been one operative buried alive, one that almost burned to death, and one that almost died of meningitis while on an assignment. Up to that point, there had been no deaths, but just three years after graduation, they had lost a member of their close group.

Everyone had been expected to disregard the tragedy that had befallen them and allowed little time to grieve. Shadow-San ended up having to fight for the operatives to be allowed to even spread the ashes of their fallen comrade.

In the wake of the tragedy, a member of Angels group with violent tendencies had snapped, repeatedly slamming one of his former friends into a wall and stabbing another when he tried to intervene. Again, everyone was expected to forget about the incident, and the violent operative faced little to no consequences for his actions.

These events were what led Bobcat to realize that VILE really didn’t care about its operatives, only the money and power they brought it. At that point, she knew she had to leave, but knew that if anyone found out, she would suffer the same fate as Wolfe had. She thought she had been doing a good job of keeping her plan secret, until Shadow-San confronted her about it one day.

“You’re not thinking about running away from VILE, are you?” He asked. “You of all people should be smart enough to know what they’ll do if they find out.”

“Believe me, I know that.” She told him. “I just can’t stay here any longer. I’ll think of a way to get out and survive.”

“The only way anyone gets out of VILE is without their memories, or dead.” He said simply.

Bobcat pretended to still be happy with her employment in VILE, going on assignments as usual, and acting like nothing had changed. But in reality, she hadn’t changed her decision about leaving VILE; she was just waiting on her chance. And a few months later, an opportunity arose.

While on a solo assignment stealing a diamond from a private collector, Bobcat ended up killing a security guard. Realizing the woman looked similar enough to her for VILE not to realize before they torched the place, Bobcat dressed the deceased security guard in her clothes, put on the dead woman’s clothes, and smashed her communicator for good measure before leaving the scene.

After discarding all remnants of her VILE days, and withdrawing the money from her secret bank account, Bobcat took on the identity of Amelia Church. Because the real Amelia Church had died as a child, in order to open a veterinary clinic, Bobcat had to forge the documents needed for her to practice veterinary medicine. It wasn’t that she didn’t have the knowledge to do so-both her parents had been wildlife vets and had taught her everything she needed to know-she just didn’t feel like going through all the training again.

She settled down in Colorado, and despite having more than enough money, took on two criminal side jobs related to her profession. Her employees were surprisingly easy to convince to help her. Bobcat also found a way to use her VILE training for good by breaking into puppy mills and the like, and forcefully shutting them down by whatever means necessary. Crime was in her blood; it wasn’t something she could change.

Shadow-San had been the one sent to destroy the evidence of Bobcat’s failed assignment. When he saw the body dressed in her clothes, he knew it wasn’t her, but burned the place to the ground, nevertheless. He never spoke of what he really found to anyone, keeping the truth to himself.

He later looked up the name Victoria Pride online, and while he found records of quite a few women by that name, none of them matched up with Bobcat’s story. Even if VILE had suspected she was still alive, they could go after every Victoria Pride out there, and still not find her.

As much as Shadow-San wanted to use the details he knew of Bobcat’s past to try and track her down, he knew that doing so while he was still under the employment of VILE would put both of them in danger.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Next I'll be posting a chapter of "Scar's Don't Fade", it should be up within a week.


	2. My Child

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Dash never knew of his true paternity.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Trigger warnings for this chapter: Mentions of suicide, memory erasing gone wrong.

Cleo was just a young operative when she found herself unexpectantly pregnant. She told no one about it besides the baby’s father, who had advised her to get rid of it. They both knew of the consequences of if VILE found out she was pregnant, but Cleo wasn’t going to give the baby up _that_ easily. She knew the rules about starting a family, but decided she’d figure out what to do about the child once it was born. She decided to just wear baggy clothes so nobody would notice.

She was able to keep the pregnancy a secret for the entirety, until she went into labor while out on an assignment. Thankfully, the baby was delivered healthy and without any complications. She decided to name the child Dashiell, a name with class and elegance.

VILE had given her a few days to recover from childbirth before she was brought before the head faculty along with the father of her son. Cleo was terrified about what they would do. In previous cases she had heard about, most often involving a male operative and a female civilian, the VILE operative had always ‘committed suicide,’ leaving the civilian to find the body and raise the child/children on their own.

Her case was different. There had never been a case of one operative getting another pregnant before, so Cleo had no previous judgements to base her possible outcome on. Perhaps they would kill both her and the baby’s father and abandon the child somewhere. Perhaps they would kill the baby as well. VILE wasn’t usually known for harming children, but this wasn’t the type of situation they usually dealt with.

“As you know, it is expressly forbidden for VILE operatives to start families, and those who have broken this rule have faced harsh punishment in the past.” Professor Maelstrom began. “But you case is different.”

“In every case before, the relationship discovered has been between a VILE operative and a civilian; never between two VILE operatives.” Said Baron Gladio, the Art Identification professor. “Because of the circumstances, we cannot take the same course of action that we have done in the past. Personally, I am very impressed with how well you were able to keep your pregnancy hidden so well.”

“We haven’t figured out what to do just yet.” Added Coach Brunt. “But believe me, we’re workin’ on it.”

“I, for one, don’t think this needs to be a matter of discussion.” Said Wolfe. “You simply can’t keep a baby on VILE island, and besides that, you broke a very serious rule.”

Dr. Icarus, the professor of Support Equipment, finally spoke up. “Before you go and make any rash decisions, I have a proposal of my own. The Countess has proved herself to be a valuable operative, and how well she was able to hide her pregnancy-even going on assignments when she was ready to give birth at any second-has only strengthened this. Thorn is also a treasured operative, and with the number of successes between the two of them, losing them would cost us dearly.

“Personally, I see this as an opportunity for VILE. If two operatives are both skilled in their own right, imagine the potential of a child of theirs. We could train the child from a young age to be a VILE operative, and by the time he is of age, he will be a valuable asset.”

“Keeping him on the island without contact from the outside world would also allow us to instill pro-VILE sentiments in him from a young age.” Agreed Professor Maelstrom. “And without the influence of the outside world, he would be completely loyal and never question his actions.”

Baron Gladio nodded in agreement.

“VILE island is no place for a child.” Argued Wolfe. “We should treat this incident like we have treated similar incidents in the past.”

“We don’t have much of a choice in the matter.” Said Coach Brunt. “In all previous cases, we could deal with the operatives without leaving the children as orphans. If we take the same course of action as we’ve done in the past, the poor kid will be orphaned.”

Dr. Icarus turned to Wolfe. “You know the rule, Wolfe; majority vote rules. And I know full well that you wouldn’t want to leave an innocent child as an orphan.”

Wolfe knew he couldn’t argue the issue any further. “Fine, the child can stay as long as there aren’t any issues. But for the time being, his presence on the island should be kept a secret from the other operatives.”

Nobody seemed to disagree with this.

So long as she and her son’s father were able to keep up with assignments, the baby was allowed to stay. For a while, there were no issues. That was until the death of Baron Gladio.

Baron Gladio had only been in his mid-fifties and in fairly good health for his age, so when he suffered a heart attack and died, everyone was surprised. After his death, Cleo found herself in the presence of the head faculty once again.

“As you know, Baron Gladio has recently passed, leaving an empty seat among the Head Faculty.” Said Professor Maelstrom. “Since we will have students arriving in under two months, it is critical that we find his replacement as soon as possible, and considering your abilities, we believe that you would be the best possible person to replace him.”

“Of course, if you’re going to fill the position, you must make a choice.” Added Dr. Icarus. “As of now, you have had the time to both keep up with your duties as an operative and be a mother to your son. Taking this position will no longer allow you this luxury. The child will be allowed to remain on the island, but caring for him will be the sole duty of his father, who will no longer be sent on assignments in order to allow you the time you will need to complete your duties as head faculty. So, what is your decision; career, or family.”

Cleo knew that it was unlikely she would ever get a chance like this again. She had to take it. Her son would be fine being raised by his father, and she would still be able to see him from time to time.

“I accept!”

“Very well, we’ll begin preparations needed for you to take your new position.” Said Dr Icarus. “For now, you are dismissed.”

Cleo was excited about her new position. Thorn, not so much. Her promotion meant that he would no longer spilt his time between being an operative and a parent and would be spending all his time watching their son, which he did not want to do.

When Thorn threatened to spill the collection of secrets he had learned about the head faculty members and had saved as blackmail, they knew he needed to be dealt with.

Because of the complication that was the child, instead of outright killing the operative, they decided to try the new invention Dr. Icarus, his pupil Saira Bellum, and Professor Maelstrom had worked on to erase him memory. Thorn would have all memories of his time at VILE erased, and he and the child would be sent away to live the rest of their lives as civilians. The child would not have his memory erased, as he was too young to remember, anyways.

According to Dr. Icarus, the device had worked on the mice (as far as they could tell) and showed no permanent effects. They hadn’t tried it out on any human subjects, but they were certain it would work just fine.

Unfortunately, they hadn’t worked out the kinks in the device as well as they had thought, and instead of simply erasing his memory, the device managed to kill Thorn. Cleo was understandable crushed, and Dr. Icarus fell into a deep depression after his failure, eventually taking his own life and being replaced by Saira Bellum.

A family with ties to VILE was selected to care for the baby. They would be paid handsomely to raise the child until the age of eighteen, on the condition that they never tell him of VILE of his true paternity, instead allowing him to believe that he was adopted from Russia.

As much as Countess Cleo didn’t want to abandon her son, she knew she had no other choice. She always liked to act like she had no emotions, but she broke down when she held her baby for the last time.

Because of the ties his adoptive family had to VILE, she could’ve asked for information on her son at any time, but she never did. She wanted to pretend that she never had a son, it was easier that way.

Nearly twenty years had passed when Countess Cleo was looking through the list of students for the upcoming school year, when she spotted the name Dashiell. She tried to tell herself it was a coincidence, after all, Dashiell night not be a common name (the rooster only listed the students first names; their last times and personal information was stored in the VILE database, but only looked into if absolutely necessary), but with the sheer number of students VILE had gotten over the years, it was only a matter of time before they got a student named Dashiell.

When Countess Cleo saw the student, she knew for sure that he was her son. She hadn’t seen Dash since he was under a year old, but she could still tell. She later found out that his adoptive family had abandoned him at the age of eighteen when they were no longer being paid, and he didn’t have much of a life before coming to the island.

Despite having two VILE operatives as parents, Dash wasn’t the prodigy everyone had been hoping for. Sure, he had an amazing eye for detail, and was great with his hands, but he wasn’t as strong or tough as his fellow students, and because of this, he was picked on quite a bit by his classmates.

Countess Cleo new her son would never be able to pass on her own, but she didn’t want to have to send him back to the life he was living before. Countess Cleo had talked the other Head Faculty members into allowing Dash to graduate, despite being at the bottom in most aspects. Most of the Head Faculty members knew about Dash’s past and agreed without convincing. Shadow-San, who had been only a normal operative at the time of Dash’s birth, knew nothing about what had happened, and was against the idea. But because of the majority vote rules policy, there was nothing he could do.

After graduation, Dash took on the code name Dash Haber, and became Countess Cleo’s personal assistant. She never told him of his true paternity, and always treated him coldly, partially because she knew it would make him stronger, and partially so that she wouldn’t get attached again.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Shout out to SiliconAngel for helping me come up with the name for Dr. Icarus.
> 
> I'll have a chapter of Scar's Don't Fade up within like a week.


	3. Lonestar

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> How Lonestar became a VILE operative in the first place.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Trigger Warnings for this chapter: Vomiting, brain injury.
> 
> Here are the current ages of the characters in this story (they graduated two years previous)  
> Magpie: 20  
> Paper Star: 22  
> Chameleon: 21  
> Card Trick: 24  
> Lonestar: 24  
> Nighthawk: 25

Mathew Birch was born in the summer of 1995 to a cattle ranching family. He would be the exact middle child of the family; three siblings born before him; three siblings born after.

He had a fairly normal childhood, spending much of his time working on his family’s cattle ranch, and learning the value of hard work. He was always a well-behaved child; polite and always willing to do what his parents told him. He grew up strong, and he grew up kind.

When Mathew was twelve, he got his first taste of the rodeo circuit. Kids his age started out in the Goat Tying competition, and he had the advantage of not only growing up on a cattle ranch but being bigger and stronger than almost all of the other boys in the 12-15 age category.

Mathew quickly learned he had a knack for wrangling livestock (of course, it helped that he’d done the same thing with larger animals on his family’s farm) and set out to compete in more events each year. Even in some of the adult categories, he took home first, and by the time he was sixteen, he was competing all over Texas. He always competed in multiple events, too, including calf roping, barrel racing, and bull riding. All of his free time was spent training his stallion, Buckaroo, to be the best rodeo horse possible.

At twenty-two years old, Mathew had a pretty good idea of what he wanted to do with his life. He planned to keep competing in rodeos until he had enough money saved up to buy his own ranch. At that point, he figured he’d retire from rodeos and become a full-time cattle rancher. Unfortunately, things don’t always go as planned.

During a bull riding competition a few hours away from his family home, Mathew hit his head on a wooden barrier after being thrown off the animal. After being rushed to the hospital, it was found that the accident had caused some brain damage and sent him into a coma. While Mathew still showed a good amount of brain activity, and would almost certainly wake up, they didn’t know when that would be and couldn’t tell the extent of the damage until he woke up. Buckaroo was sent back to his family’s ranch to be looked after until he woke up again.

In a way, the coma saved Mathew’s life, but in another it destroyed him. He woke up just under a month later, only to be told that the place he once called home had been struck by a devastating tornado while he was in the coma. His parents, his siblings, even Buckaroo, they were all dead. The ranch had been completely destroyed so he had no home to return to.

The accident had damaged his brain in ways that impaired him but didn’t completely stop him. His memory wasn’t as sharp as it once was, and he would have trouble recalling events that took place before the accident and would often forget things that just happened. He had issues concentrating and couldn’t sleep at night.

Mathew’s savings were all but eaten up by the medical bills, and the money he got from the insurance was nowhere near what he needed to rebuild his crumbled life. He knew he had to do something for money but competing in a rodeo ever again was simply out of the question.

After several failed attempts to make an honest living, Mathew turned to crime. As much as he hated it, he knew it was necessary for his survival. This later led to him being given the opportunity to attend VILE Academy.

His roommates at VILE academy were an interesting bunch to say the least. There was Kaia, a tall and muscular Maori woman who was absolutely covered in tattoos, Leo, a smart but quiet fellow from Vermont, Shiko, an honestly psychopathic Japanese woman, Damien, a trickster born of a Creole mother and a Cajun father, and Maggie, a small British woman who honestly looked too young to be attending.

Mathew got along well with all his roommates (except for Shiko, who didn’t seem to get along with anyone), but in no time at all, Leo and Damian became his best friends.

While his roommates were mostly nice to him, his other classmates were a different story. Ever since the accident, Mathew had become a bit slow. He struggled with tests and written assignments, and sometimes struggled to comprehend things he would have once easily understood. His large size kept anyone from trying to physically intimidate him, but that didn’t stop the cruel comments and mean-spirited pranks.

Mathew never attempted to confront his bullies, fearing it might get him in trouble. At one point during the year, Maggie and Kaia were sick of seeing him being constantly picked on and took things into their own hands. Kaia used her intimidating physique to scare his tormentors into leaving him alone, and Maggie took her revenge with her manipulation tactics, and a few other tricks of her own. The harassment stopped soon after.

Mathew was always afraid that he wouldn’t graduate. After all, only 40 students were allowed to graduate VILE academy each year. Somehow, he and the rest of his roommates were all among the graduating class.

Right before graduation, they all chose their codenames. Mathew chose Lonestar, as it reminded him of the place he once called home. Maggie and Kaia were now Magpie and Nighthawk respectively. The rest of the group had chosen their respective names based on their specialty. Leo chose Chameleon after acquiring an invisibility suit created by Dr. Bellum, Damien chose Card Trick due to his crafty nature and the deck of weaponized playing cards he now carried, and Shiko chose Paper Star due to her talents with making paper weapons.

After graduation came their first ever heist. On the day they were supposed to go out, Lonestar woke up feeling off. His head hurt and he constantly felt like the room was spinning. He decided to go down to the infirmary, but since he didn’t have a fever, they just assumed he was nervous about his first assignment.

Reluctantly, he joined the rest of his group in the helicopter. Magpie, who always seemed to notice these sorts of things, quickly picked up on this.

“Are you alright?” She asked him, sounding genuinely concerned.

“I think I’m just nervous.” He told her. “I feel kinda dizzy and my head hurts a bit.”

“That doesn’t sound like nerves to me.” She replied. “Are you sure you’re okay to go on the heist with us?”

“I went to the infirmary this morning.” Said Lonestar. “They told me I was fine.”

Magpie spent most of the helicopter ride curled up against him. This wasn’t unusual, as the small woman often craved platonic affection, but Lonestar could tell she was currently doing it out of concern.

When it came time to jump from helicopter, Lonestar began to feel extremely dizzy. He closed his eyes and leaned against the wall of the helicopter for what he thought was just a second. But when he opened them, he found himself on the floor of the helicopter with Magpie standing over him. Everyone else had already jumped. With a groan, he sat up.

“I knew there was something wrong with you.” Said Magpie. “I made sure I was the last one to jump in case something happened to you. You learned up against the wall, closed your eyes, then passed out. You’ve only been out for a few minutes, though.”

Lonestar suddenly turned pale. Knowing what was about to happen, Magpie quickly thrust the trash bin from the corner of the helicopter into his hands only seconds before he was sick. Magpie had always had an aversion to being around sick people, but Lonestar was her friend. She stayed by his side the entire time, ever placing a comforting hand on his broad shoulder.

After he was done throwing up, Lonestar spat into the bin and wiped his mouth on his sleeve. Not wanting the contents of the bin anywhere near her, Magpie shoved it back into the corner.

She felt his forehead, expecting a fever, but found his temperature to be normal.

“You don’t have a fever.” She told him. “Have you been eating that VILE brand imitation rice again?”

He shook his head. “I haven’t touched that stuff since day 1. I just woke up with a headache and felt dizzy.”

“I’m no doctor, but I think there’s something seriously wrong with you.” Said Magpie. “When we get back to the island, you need too go to the infirmary right away.”

After listening to Magpie’s account of what had happened, and taking a look at Lonestar’s medical history, the VILE doctors decided he needed an MRI. It was confirmed that the issue was most likely caused by his past brain injury.

Although he was told he would not be mindwiped because of the incident or any similar issues that arose due to the brain injury, Lonestar still feared that his condition would lead to his employment at VILE being cut short.

He didn’t want to lose the only friends he had, so he decided to become a model operative, so they’d have no reason to get rid of him. He took on as many assignments as he could, and always stayed obedient to the Head Faculty. VILE was the only thing he had left, so his fear of losing it was what drove him to become an extremely successful VILE operative over the course of just two years.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Credit for Paper Star's name goes out to Mangokat.
> 
> I've still got to write two more Bits and Pieces (Crowley's pasts, and the events that caused Moose Boy and Otter Man tomove to Glasgow).
> 
> As always, if you liked it, I would appreciate if you left me a comment.


	4. A Cold Night in Stockholm

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Why Moose Boy and Otter Man left Sweden in the first place.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Trigger warnings for this chapter: Some violence, self-surgery.

Moose Boy and Otter Man were used to failure, but that didn’t mean it stung any less. They were so close this time, too. They had tied up Carmen Sandiego, and Otter Man had almost passed the codes off to the buyer, but then she got out and escaped with the codes.

After a failure like this one, Otter Man would usually start by blaming other people. First it was Carmen Sandiego’s fault for betraying VILE in the first place, then it was Moose Boy’s fault for letting her escape, then it was VILE’s fault for sending them out so poorly equipped. Every time, however, it would always circle back to be his fault.

He’d been far too confident since the moment they had caught her; proud of actually doing something right for once. He’d even worn her hat like a trophy on the way back to the ice hotel. He should have made sure Moose Boy was well equipped enough to deal with a threat like Carmen Sandiego, as while the other man was certainly strong, he was far from the smartest person in the world. He hadn’t been strong enough to fight off Carmen Sandiego on his own, so he had to call Moose Boy, who didn’t quite get there in time to stop her. When the ice sculpture had broken, his eyesight wasn’t good enough for him to find the chip. Finally, when Carmen Sandiego made her escape, he hadn’t been fast enough to catch her.

After every one of their failures, Otter Man had been left wondering _if only_. If only he had been just a bit stronger. If only his eyesight was still as good as it was when he joined VILE ten years ago. If only he had planned everything out better. If only he was good enough.

Moose Boy was used to the way his partner got after their failures, but it still worried him, nonetheless. Otter Man always seemed so depressed after they failed an assignment and could stay that way for days at a time. Moose Boy knew that if it was this obvious to someone like him, it really was a problem.

After they had lost both Carmen Sandiego and the chip containing the launch codes, Otter Man had simply walked back to the room they were staying in, looking defeated, and not saying a single word. When he finally got back to the room, he simply removed his coat and glasses, crawled into his sleeping bag (too cold to sleep without one when everything is made of ice), and turned to face the wall.

While Moose Boy knew his partner probably wanted to be alone for a while, but after Otter Man didn’t move from his position for almost an hour, Moose Boy was starting to get worried.

“Sven, I’m worried about you.” He said, placing a large hand on the smaller man’s shoulder. “Is there anything I can get you that might make you feel better?”

He shook his head. “I just want to sleep until its time to go home in the morning.”

They had an apartment that was a few hours away from Stockholm by train. Because of the distance, it made more sense to get a room in the ice hotel for the night and travel back in the morning, than attempting to both complete the trip once each way on top of completing the assignment.

“Its too early to go to bed yet.” Said Moose Boy. “You should at least have something for dinner before you go to sleep; you’re already too thin as it is, you can’t keep skipping meals like this.”

He shook his head again. “Not hungry. Just want to sleep.”

“Do you need a hug?”

“ _Nej._ ”

“Are you sure?”

Otter Man sighed. “Fine, I guess I could use a hug.”

With a smile, Moose Boy sat down on the bed and pulled the smaller man into his arms, sleeping bag and all. While Otter Man would never admit it, he loved receiving affection from Moose Boy.

“Feeling better?” Asked Moose Boy.

“I guess so.” He muttered into the larger man’s chest.

“What do you want to do for dinner?” He asked. “We could go to that place we passed this morning on the way to the hotel, or we could order in if you don’t feel like going out.”

Otter Man considered his options for a moment. He would’ve liked to just order in, but there weren’t many delivery places around where they currently were. The restaurant in question had advertised having something called Death By Chocolate cake with a sign in their window (Otter Man loved anything with chocolate in it), and he figured Moose Boy would probably prefer going out to eat as well, as it wasn’t something the two of them did to often and would be the closest thing to a date they’d had in over a month.

“I think we should go out to eat.” He told Moose Boy. “Its been a while since we’ve done something like that.”

Moose Boy seemed excited about that plan. “Great! Just get back on your coat and glasses, and we can get going.”

Because they had taken the train to Stockholm, they didn’t have a vehicle for their time in the city. They could have taken a taxi, but because of how close the hotel the restaurant was, and how much a cab would have cost on a Saturday night in the city, they decided to walk.

The night air was cold, cold enough to actually make Otter Man shiver. He’d lived most of his life in Sweden, and while he was mostly fine with the cold, he’d never gotten used some of the lower temperatures of the country. He always figured that it was because of how thin he was; it’s a bit harder to regulate your body heat in freezing temperatures when you’re just skin and bones.

Moose Boy, noticing how cold his partner was feeling, wrapped his arm around the smaller man.

“We’re almost there, Sven.” He assured him. “Its just a few more blocks.”

Besides the cold, Otter Man just couldn’t seem to shake the feeling of being watched. He knew it was probably nothing-his anxiety had the habit of getting the better of him-and yet he couldn’t brush it off. He didn’t tell Moose Boy, not wanting the other man to think anything was wrong.

They were only about a block from the restaurant now, and Otter Man couldn’t wait to get inside and out of the cold.

Moose Boy caught moment out of the corner of his eye, and before he could even alert Otter Man, they were surrounded by ACME agents.

“Freeze!” Shouted one of the agents. “You are under arrest for being part of the organization known as VILE, and for the harm you have caused to Carmen Sandiego!”

Otter Man was confused about the last part. “We have done nothing to Carmen Sandiego; she escaped unharmed. What is your motivation for making up lies about us if you already know us to be VILE operatives?”

Otter Man didn’t know what he was trying to accomplish by arguing with the ACME agents. Perhaps he thought he could convince them to let him and Moose Boy go?

“According to what we were told, Carmen Sandiego was spotted leaving the Bell Tower not long before she quickly started losing altitude.” Said the agent, pointing his stun gun at Otter Man. “Care to explain to me how something like that could have happened? There is no reason that someone as skilled as her would suddenly lose altitude like that without cause, and you two seem to be the only VILE operative within a one-hundred-mile radius.”

Otter man was tired and stressed, and frankly, he was pretty certain he had nothing to lose. “Maybe an idiot agent of yours took her down and lied about not knowing what happened to avoid punishment for harming one of their own. Ever consider _that_ possibility?”

That was enough for the agent to fire his stun gun at Otter Man, hitting him square in the chest. He convulsed as the electricity ran through his body, before collapsing to the ground.

When Moose Boy saw Otter Man fall to the ground, and the man that had just caused him to do so about to approach his still form, he saw red. As the large Swede became full of adrenaline, his instincts quickly took over.

He shoved the ACME agent away from his, unconscious partner, before quickly scooping him off the ground. Then, with a secure grasp on Otter Man, he shoved though a group of agents, and took off running. One of the ACME agents managed to shoot him in the shoulder, but he could hardly feel the bullet wound at all. It was as if everything was happening in slow motion.

Moose Boy kept running even after the ACME agent were out of sight, only stopping when he felt he couldn’t run any further. They were so far from the ice hotel and that point, and he didn’t even know where they had ended up. Thankfully, both of their communicators had GPS’s build in, so it wouldn’t be too hard to find the way back.

He sat down on a bench in order to catch his breath, laying Otter Man across the bench, the smaller man’s head resting in his lap, in order to get a better look at what condition he was in.

Otter Man suddenly groaned and slowly opened his eyes. He made no attempt to move from his current position, simply looking up at Moose Boy.

“Henrik, what happened?” He asked. “I can’t remember anything after being hit with that stun gun. Have they captured us? Why are we outside?”

“We got away; I picked you up after you got zapped and ran.” Explained Moose Boy. “I don’t know where we are, but we can use the GPS feature of my communicator to get back. How are you feeling?”

Otter Man groaned again. “My head hurts, and I just feel so sore. Did they get you, too?”

“ _Nej_ , I was too quick.” He lied. “We should be getting back to the hotel soon. Are you okay to walk, or should I carry you?”

Otter Man didn’t seem to fully process what Moose Boy had asked.

“I don’t think we should stay in Sweden any longer.” He said simply.

Moose Boy was confused. “But why? We’re both Swedish, shouldn’t we stay in our country of birth as long as we’re allowed?”

“ACME knows we’re located in Sweden, and even if we never actually harmed Carmen Sandiego, they still think we did, and will likely keep trying to take us down for apparently harming someone that works for them.” Explained Otter Man. “Even if we go back to our apartment, its only a matter of time before they find us. I don’t know where we’ll go, but we can’t stay in Sweden much longer.”

Moose Boy gave a nod. “I understand, Sven; we’ll figure something out. But for now, we really should get back to the hotel. Can you walk, or do you need me to carry you?”

“I can walk, just let me rest my eyes for a second.”

Otter Man had only planed on closing his eyes for a moment but ended up falling asleep. Moose Boy ended up having to carry him back.

Seeing no reason to upset the smaller man further, Moose Boy decided to deal with the bullet wound while Otter Man was still asleep. He carefully removed the bullet with a knife, sterilized the wound with a bottle of vodka, and stitched it up. He’d always had an extremely high pain tolerance, so doing something like this wasn’t an issue.

When Otter Man came to, he could hear Moose Boy talking to someone on the phone but couldn’t make out any of the conversation. When Moose Boy realized his partner was awake, he quickly ended the conversation.

“How are you feeling, Sven.” He asked.

“Sore, and tired.” Replied Otter Man. “Who were you talking to?”

“Alistair said we can stay in his apartment in Glasgow if we don’t feel comfortable staying in Sweden anymore.” Explained Moose Boy. “He was able to get us a direct flight in the morning; first class, since he had a lot of frequent flyer miles ready to expire.”

Out of all the VILE operatives, Crowley was one of the few brash enough to collect frequent flyer miles whenever he traveled via a commercial airline, as opposed to using one of VILE’s private jets. He was, at the very least, smart enough to collect the points under a fake name.

“You do remember that he basically tried to kill us that one time?” Asked Otter Man.

Moose Boy shrugged. “It was a one-time thing, and he was dealing with a lot of issues at the time; he’s a lot more mellow now. Besides, he hardly even stays there; he mostly just uses it for storage.”

“And what about our belongings back at our apartment? I have some items there I don’t want to lose.”

“When I called him, he was on an assignment with Neal, who offered to pack up our apartment and ship it to Glasgow.” Replied Moose Boy. “The only thing he can’t send is the furniture, but Alistair already has that stuff.”

Otter Man assumed Crowley had purposely chosen to go on an assignment with Neal the Eel, as he did from time to time. The two men liked to hook up with each other and sharing a hotel room gave them the chance to do just that.

“I think that will work; ACME would never guess we’d head to Scotland.” He told Moose Boy. “But the first thing we’re doing when we get there is washing all the blankets and sheets. I know Alistair well enough to guess the kind of things those sheets have seen.”

Moose Boy kissed the smaller man on the forehead. “Get some sleep, Sven; today was a busy day, and you’ll need your energy for tomorrow. _Jag älskar dig_.”

“ _Jag älskar dig_.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Next I'll be working on a chapter that explores the past of my character, Crowley. Its gonna take longer, not just because of the length, but because of some of the heavier subject matter it will include.
> 
> If you liked this chapter, please leave a comment.
> 
> Headcanon that Otter Man likes chocolate is from MangoKat.


	5. Crowley

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The story of how Crowley became who he is now.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Trigger warnings for this chapter: Violence, mentions of child molestation, mentions of prostitution, mentions of drugs.

The MacFarlane family was far from rich, but they made do. Even from a young age, Alistair understood that money was tight, and that his parents couldn’t always afford to buy him new clothes or fancy toys for his birthday, and he was fine with that.

For the first few years of his life, Alistair lived a happy and normal existence. He did well in school and never crossed his parents. He was very much involved with the church his family attended (they were practicing Catholics and went every Sunday), and despite his young age, was allowed to become an Altar Boy.

When he was eight, everything changed. After sermon one day, the priest told Alistair he needed him for a special task. Being young and trusting, Alistair didn’t question this, and dutifully followed the man to the basement of the church. This would be the first, but far from the last time, he was molested.

After the abuse was over, the priest told Alistair that what just happened was completely normal, and still being an impressionable child, the boy believed him. The man went on to further tell him that if he told his parents or anyone else about what happened, they would only be mad at him. Alistair didn’t question any of what the priest had told him.

It wasn’t long after the start of the abuse that Alistair’s attitude completely changed. He’d been such a sweet and mellow child before, but now he was angry and constantly lashing out at people. His parents and teachers simply chalked this up to random misbehavior; never questioning the cause of this sudden change, only punishing the behaviors for it.

By the time he turned ten, you would’ve guessed he was the same person as that wide-eyed eight-year-old. Alistair kept going to church, and the abuse kept happening. Every Sunday he’d put up a fight, but his parents still made him go, once again chalking it up to “Boys will be boys.”

His anger issues were even worse now. He was constantly in detention and had virtually no friends. Many of the other students liked to instigate and see how wound up they could get him before he would react. And, of course, _they_ never got in trouble because _he_ was the one who needed to learn to watch his temper. This cumulated in him constantly skipping class, and going from having perfect marks, to barely passing.

Alistair now knew what the priest was doing to him was wrong, but he didn’t think there was anything he could do about it. He wasn’t exactly sure _how_ his parents would react if he told them what was going on, but he assumed it wouldn’t be good. He also feared for the few altar boys younger than him. If he fought the abuse, would that sick bastard move on to them instead? Not wanting anyone else to have to suffer the same fate as he did, he never did anything. He’d learned from the Bible that sometimes you had to make sacrifices for other people, that was what he felt he needed to do.

He found an escape from his fucked-up situation in the form of literature. He idolized Neil Gaiman and loved the book Good Omens. Alistair had always dreamed of being a writer but had always been told his dream was stupid. He would only ever follow in the footsteps of his father, growing up to be nothing more than a drunkard working a shitty job with a bitchy wife and a bratty child. No one ever gave him a second thought, and nobody expected him to go anywhere in life.

He wrote poetry as an escape, finding writing to be an excellent coping mechanism. His poems were mostly dark, having been based around his own life. He never showed anyone the composition notebook he wrote his poems in, but secretly hoped he would have his poetry published one day.

At the age of fourteen, despite the abuse still happening, Alistair formed a relationship of sorts with two of his classmates; Michael and Shawna. Much life him, they had both been victimized-Michael by his aunt, and Shawna by her stepfather-and it gave them an understanding of sorts.

Their relationship was both sexual and romantic. Sometimes it would be Michael and Shawna, sometimes Alistair and Shawna, sometimes Alistair and Michael, but more often than not, it was all three of them. Their relationship allowed Alistair to explore his sexuality with people who understood and cared about him, and that was all he’d ever wanted.

It was only a few months into the relationship when Alistair discovered that Michael and Shawna were in a gang. They were both junior members of the Glasgow Rats, having been so for almost a year at that point, their main duties consisting of distribution and keeping an eye out for rival gangs. Naturally, they felt Alistair should join.

“Ye won’t make shit tryin’ tae work an honest job.” Shawna had told him. “Do ye wanna be stuck in this shite town for the rest of yer life, or do ye wanna be someone?”

“We’ll put in a good work for ye.” Said Michael.

Alistair wasn’t exactly sure about joining a gang; it just seemed wrong. Then again, everything in his life was wrong, so why was he so hung up about the idea of being part of the Glasgow Rats? He finally decided that this might be what kept him from becoming just like his father.

The Glasgow Rats weren’t as violent as Alistair had first imagined. They didn’t fight in gang wars like he’d seen on TV, instead opting to quietly distribute drugs throughout the city, and deal with rival gangs without drawing too much attention to themselves.

The work wasn’t bad, and it paid pretty well. The gang typically used younger teens to make deliveries and pick up payment, as they looked less suspicious. The teens were also encouraged to carry boxes of candy bars with them when transporting for the gang, as if they were questioned, they could simply say they were selling candy for their school.

Alistair’s parents did give a crap about where he went, or what he did after school, so long as he didn’t cause any problems for them. This was never an issue as the Glasgow Rats encouraged their members to keep a low profile. If anything, he was actually getting in _less_ trouble.

It wasn’t until he was sixteen, when Alistair finally came out about the abuse. Through everything that had happened, even joining the Glasgow Rats, Alistair had kept up working as an altar boy, and letting the abuse continue, fearing the priest would move on to another boy if he left. In the end, this is exactly what happened, but it didn’t even take Alistair leaving.

At one point, the priest seemed to have lost interest in Alistair. The teen was relieved at first, but then he figured out what was going on. That sick bastard had moved on to another altar boy, and Alistair knew he’d have to make sure the boy didn’t suffer as he had.

The logical choice was to finally tell his parents about the abuse. He didn’t know how they would react, but Alistair figured they could at least do something to stop any more children from being harmed. Unfortunately, their reaction was much different than he had hoped.

His parents didn’t believe that he’d actually been molested by the priest, and thought he’d made the whole thing up. Their logic was that if this had actually been going on for eight years, he would have told someone, and in the case he was telling the truth, if he let it continue for so long, he probably liked it. They went on to further accuse him of being gay and trying to take the attention off himself by making false accusations.

Alistair wasn’t straight, but he wasn’t gay, either; he liked both women and men. But this wasn’t about his sexuality; it was about abuse that had happened and would most likely continue to happen if nobody did anything to stop it. He knew the priest had been working for that church before he was even born, so it was likely he wasn’t the man’s first victim.

Alistair packed up his things and left that night. If his parents didn’t believe him, he felt he shouldn’t stay any longer. He ended up sleeping on the floor of Michael’s bedroom that night, and for a few months after, until he was able to get an apartment.

After taking a few days to clear his head, Alistair began to scheme. He knew this wouldn’t stop unless somebody did something, and that person would probably have to be him. Having never gotten the chance to get revenge on their own abusers-Michael’s aunt had killed herself, and Shawna’s stepfather had died after crashing his truck into a tree while drunk-they were more than happy to help him get revenge on his.

Alistair told the priest that he had something to tell him, and that they needed to meet at night in the church’s basement. To his surprise, the man actually went with it, and didn’t question the teen’s intentions.

“What did ye want?” The priest demanded as soon as they were alone in the basement. “I’m a busy fellow.”

Alistair smirked. “I spent eight years allowin’ ye to hurt me, I’m ‘ere to make sure ye never lay a hand on another laddie again.”

“What’re ye gonna do?” The man laughed. “Yer parents told me what ye said, and they thought yer were makin’ it up. Nobody will ever believe ye.”

“Ye don’t get it, do ye?” Said Alistair. “I’m done tryin’ tae get people tae believe me; I’m here tae make sure ye can’t hurt anyone again.”

He slipped out of the basement, locking the door behind him and pushing a heavy couch in front of the door so the priest had no way of escape. With a new confidence in his step, Alistair walked out of the building to where Michael and Shawna were waiting for him.

“Is it done?” Asked Shawna.

He nodded. “Aye, he ain’t gettin’ out of there. Ye do yer part?”

“Aye.”

While Alistair was busy with the priest, Michael and Shawna had been pouring gasoline throughout the entirety of the church. As per Alistair’s request, they had also checked to make sure that no innocent people or animals were inside.

Alistair nodded to his accomplices, before pulling out a box of matches. “Time tae light em’ up!”

He smirked as he lit a match and tossed it into the building. “See ye in hell, motherfucker.”

They retreated a safe distance away to watch the fire burn, knowing they wouldn’t be suspected. All three of them had alibies from people that were actually considered fairly credible and had made sure not to leave anything behind for the police to find. Considering the neighborhood the church was located in, it would most likely be brushed off as a random act of arson. The police would likely put little effort into the case and might not even find the body of the priest.

As Alistair watched the firetrucks arrive to battle the blaze, albeit just a bit too late, he felt as if a weight had been lifted. That chapter of his life had ended, and he finally felt like he could live without fear.

The Glasgow Rats weren’t against their members prioritizing school over the gang. In fact, they seemed to encourage it. Truancy and low grades attracted attention towards the life of said member, which was the last thing the Rats wanted. By making school a priority and not doing anything to be noticed, younger members were able to simply slip under the radar.

Between school and their duties, Alistair and Michael still found time to hang out. Shawna was a different story. While she got the best grades out of the three of them, it was obvious that she was putting most of her time towards the Rats. She wanted to find her place among the ranks, and it showed.

While Alistair fully understood and supported her choice, even if it meant they weren’t able to spend as much time together. Michael, on the other hand, felt betrayed by her actions. Even if she wanted to gain a reputation, he didn’t think she should be doing it at the cost of their relationship. He even took to ignoring her during the times she actually wanted to hang out.

As Shawna advanced farther and farther within the ranks of the Glasgow Rats, she assumed Alistair and Michael would be happy for her, and never saw the problem. Whenever she had time to actually hang out with them Michael would claim to be busy, and she just assumed he was. It never crossed her mind that there might be an issue.

By the time they graduated, Shawna had risen to a much higher position within the Rats than anyone else her age had ever done. It was clear the leader of the gang saw great potential in her and took her under his wing. If anything happened to him, it was certainly a possibility that the Rats could end up under her control.

In order to prove her worth within the organization, Shawna was put in charge of a very important heist. A rival gang, known only as the Snakes, had been dealing within the Glasgow Rats territory, and the Rats wanted them dealt with. The warehouse the Snakes were working out of had already been located, so it was up to Shawna to decide how to deal with it.

Shawna didn’t trust too many members of the Rats, especially for something as important as this, so she decided her best choice for backup would be Alistair and Michael. Of course, she would bring along other members for the manpower, but the three of them would be the ones in control.

Michael was still acting weirdly towards Shawna at this point, but he didn’t dare question her authority, knowing she was in a much higher position than him and disobeying her could get him disbarred from the Glasgow Rats entirely. Despite going on the heist and doing as he was told, Michael refused to be even the slightest bit friendly towards her.

During the heist, you could cut the tension between Michael and Shawna with a knife. They both tried to act professionally, but it was clear emotions were getting in the way. Eventually, Shawna snapped.

“The hell’s yer problem?” She demanded. “Ye’ve been fookin’ Baltic to me all day!”

“Ye practically forgot aboot us, and _yer_ wonderin’ why I’ve been actin’ so cauld?” He shouted. “Maybe it would just be easier for ye if I just fookin’ died!”

Shawna didn’t even have time to react when she saw a member of the Snakes sneak up behind Michael, gun in hand. She opened her mouth to try and warn him, but by the time the words came out, he had a bullet in the back of his head. Michael died instantly.

Shawna was never the same after that day. She was much colder of a person, and while she was still close with Alistair, any hint of a romantic or sexual relationship between them was now gone. Alistair understood why, it was clear she felt that ending their relationship was easier than having to lose someone again like that. Even without Shawna, Alistair still had a fairly active sex life. He never did equate sex to love or romance, so random hookups were never off the table.

Not even a year later, the leader of the Glasgow Rats was taken down by police, and Shawna took his place.

Alistair stayed with the Glasgow Rats until the age of 22, when an interesting opportunity found its way into his lap. He was offered a place at VILE academy, a school for thieves, and was promised a job upon graduation. At first, he didn’t want to abandon the life he had made for himself, but the promise of a life as a professional criminal, and the opportunity to travel all over the world had him sold.

He had a good enough backup plan if this VILE thing didn’t work out; Shawna had promised he could come back to the gang if he needed to, and he had more than enough money to keep his apartment paid for, for quite a while (he had a lot of personal items he didn’t want to lose that he couldn’t bring to VILE academy with him).

Alistair was used to gray skies and rain weather, so the tropical location of the academy would take some getting used to. Before he had even been allowed to board the helicopter to the island, his bags had been searched, and a blindfold had been placed over his eyes. This being a school for professional thieves, he understood their precautions.

Not long after arriving on the island, Alistair was introduced to his roommates. There was Neal, a tall and lanky Kiwi, Heidi, a small and quiet German woman who could read and write English perfectly, but hardly spoke it, Sven, a slightly anxious Swede who was neither tall nor muscular, Henrik, also Swedish, but tall and muscular, if a bit thick in the head, and Devon, a beautiful blonde woman from the United States.

It wasn’t too long before Alistair and Devon began to develop feelings for each other. Much like himself, Devon didn’t equate sex to love, having spent a few years as a prostitute before she came to the island. Neither one of them saw it as cheating to have sex with someone else (they had both had sex with Neal on different occasions), and while they did have sex with each other, it was the romance that they considered to be the important part of their relationship. Alistair considered the relationship he’d had with Michael and Shawna to be nothing more than teenage experimentation, but what he had with Devon was real.

While Alistair was able to develop a deep relationship with Devon, and become close friends with all of his roommates, it always seemed as if his year was jinxed. Between the injuries and the number of students that had either voluntarily dropped out, or had been expelled (thankfully, none of his friends were part of either group), that was certainly a possibility.

As graduation drew close, Alistair and his friends were finally able to choose their code names. Alistair went with Crowley, after a character in his favorite book, Neal chose the name Neal the Eel, due to his use of a slick suit, Heidi decided on Data, thanks to her computer skills, Sven took the name Otter Man, having worked with otters in the past and having been nicknamed Otter by the head keeper at the zoo he used to work at, Henrik decided on Moose Boy, having been nicknamed Moose during his hockey years, and Devon went with Fallen Angel, as she had once been a religious person before her path had abruptly changed.

Thankfully, Crowley and his friends all graduated, and when their first assignment went off without a hitch, Crowley hoped that they might finally being shedding their label as “The Unluckiest Year.” Unfortunately, this proved to be far from the truth.

In just three years after graduating, they had already faced near-disasters multiple times. Data had been buried alive, Otter Man had caught meningitis on an assignment and had almost died, and Neal had been badly burned when Crowley had forgotten how flammable the residue his slick suit left behind was. Up until that point, there had been no deaths, but that was about to change.

While Fallen Angel was out on the assignment that would eventually lead to her death, Crowley was on one of his own. It had been a quick and easy assignment for him, but by the time he returned to the island, Bobcat had already returned with the bad news.

Crowley was never the most rational person, especially when he was hurt. Anger was the emotion he was most familiar with and was much easier to deal with than sadness or fear. While he put the blame for his Angel’s death solely on Bobcat, and had initially been targeted at her, the target of his rage soon changed when he was stopped by Otter Man on his way to confront Bobcat.

“I know exactly what you’re going to do, and I’m here to stop you.” Otter Man had said. “This isn’t Bobcat’s fault; you’re not a rational person when you’re upset.”

Otter Man was right about that last part, as Crowley’s next action was to pick the smaller man up by his throat. Crowley was by no means tall, but he still had about four inches and over twenty pounds on Otter Man.

The smaller man gave him a look of pure betrayal and fear, but Crowley didn’t care. He tightened his grip around Otter Man’s neck and began smashing him into the wall aggressively.

“Ye think yer so tough?” He snarled. “Yer just the same pathetic nerd ye were when ye got ‘ere.”

Otter Man struggled for air, as Crowley ranted and repeatedly bashed him into the wall. He was certain this was the way he was going to die. Just as he was about to pass out, he spotted Moose Boy running up behind Crowley. The large man grabbed the Scotsman, who dropped Otter Man in surprise, and turned him so they were facing each other.

“Why are you doing this to Sven?” He asked, his tone oddly calm. “He didn’t do anything to you.”

Crowley was already full of rage and adrenaline, and now that he felt cornered, he did the only thing he felt he could do; he pulled out a knife and stabbed it into Moose Boy’s abdomen. The large Swede dropped like a ton of bricks.

It took Crowley a few seconds to process what had just happened. Moose Boy was on the ground, unconscious and bleeding, Otter Man was also on the ground, screaming, and the rest of the room was silent, as both operatives and students alike stared on at what had just happened. Without a second thought, Crowley ran, heading to the only place he felt safe right now; the rarely used supply closet where he used to smoke during his days as a student.

Data found him in the supply closet a few hours later. He had calmed done a bit by then, having chain-smoked a few cigarettes. She quietly sat down next to him on supply crate.

“You didn’t kill either of them.” She told him. “I wasn’t allowed to see them-Henrik was still in surgery, and Sven had an anxiety attack from the incident so they decided it might be best if he didn’t have visitors until after he’s had some time to calm down-but they’ll both live. My only question is, why?”

He stared at the ground. “I don’t fookin’ know. Ye know how I get when I’m upset, just can’t control me temper.”

“Well, this should be your wakeup call to fix that.” Said Data. “Henrik will eventually forgive you, but Sven may never trust you again. You can’t change the past, but you can control the future.”

Crowley sighed; Data was right. He knew he had to get his temper under control, no matter what. He decided that he also wanted to repair his shattered relationship with Moose Boy and Otter Man, even if it was the last thing he did. Starting today, he decided he was going to be a better person; that’s what Fallen Angel would’ve wanted.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Next I'll be posting a chapter of Scars Don't Fade, hopefully within a week or so.


	6. Murderer!

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> El Topo never thought he'd be a killer.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Trigger warnings for this chapter: Violence, vomiting, emotional pain

El Topo was not a violent person by nature. Sure, he was a criminal, but that was out of survival. After his parents had kicked him out for being gay at the age of sixteen, he spent three years stealing to survive, all while finishing up school. He’d never been one to start fights, either; only resorting to violence when he felt threatened.

All VILE operatives were trained to kill and carried a firearm in case of emergency. Most VILE operatives had killed at least one person before, and it wasn’t uncommon for older operatives to have a kill count in the double digits, but El Topo was certain he’d never kill someone. Sure, it bothered him to watch his fellow operatives kill civilians, but he never thought he’d have to pull the trigger himself.

“As you may be aware, VILE has dipped its toes into many industries, including the automotive industry.” Dr. Bellum had told them. “A factory in Germany has been producing sports cars that are both better and cheaper than ours. Because of the cost of researching and improving our design, it would be much easier and cost effective for us to simply burn the factory to the ground.

“Since the factory is fully automated, safe for a handful of security guards, you should have no problem breaking in, pouring this accelerant, and torching the place without getting burned. Be very careful with this accelerant, it was invented by another operative, and is very powerful; you will want to get as far away from the building as soon as you light the match.”

As soon as they were out of Dr. Bellum’s sight, Le Chevre squeezed El Topo’s hand.

“This will be an easy assignment, _mon amour_ , and before you know it, we will be back on the island, having successfully completed it.” He told the shorter man.

Their last assignment had been a complete failure, thanks to a certain woman in red. But this time, Carmen and her crew, along with Shadow-San, would be in Japan, so there was nothing holding the pair back.

El Topo nodded. “ _Si, mi amor_.”

Le Chevre had entered the building first. Because of how graceful he was, he had no trouble disabling the security cameras without being seen. After the cameras had all been dealt with, he called in El Topo to help him pour the accelerant throughout the building.

They split up to cover more ground, and El Topo thought nothing of it, since clearly security in the building was poor at best. As he was pouring the accelerant, he heard a German man shout from where Le Chevre was.

“Stop! Trespasser!” Shouted the security guard. “Put your hands up now or I will have to shoot.”

El Topo quietly crept up behind the man to see him pointing a gun at Le Chevre, who was cornered.

Fearing the guard might turn the Frenchman into the police, which would in turn end with him being returned to the isle of VILE to be mindwiped, or that he might decide to straight up shoot the man, El Topo panicked.

Without another though, he drew his own gun, and fired it at the guard. The bullet struck him in the back of the head, and he died instantly. He fell to the ground, a growing halo of blood around his head.

Both El Topo and Le Chevre were in shock at what had just happened. While Le Chevre had killed before, he didn’t think it was something El Topo had it in him to do, and the shorter man seemed the feel the same way. While Le Chevre snapped out of his shocked state rather quickly, El Topo seemed to still be processing the situation.

Le Chevre walked over to his boyfriend and took the other man’s hand. “You did well, _mon amour_ ; all there is left is for us to light this place ablaze.

El Topo was still processing what happened as they lit the building on fire and sprinted away. It wasn’t until they were walking to the airfield that it hit him.

He had killed somebody; he was a murderer. The guard he killed probably had a family. He could have had a wife and kids waiting for him at home, but instead of seeing him at the end of the day, they would only be greeted by a police officer telling them he had been killed. El Topo suddenly stopped walking.

Le Chevre turned to face him. “Antonio, _mon chou_ , are you alright?”

He opened his mouth to reply, but instead ended up vomiting all over Le Chevre’s shoes. The taller man was a bit displeased by his ruined shoes, but he was more worried about El Topo than anything. He quickly stepped out of the way, just in case El Topo was going to be sick again and felt the shorter man’s forehead.

He frowned. “You don’t have a fever, _Mon Amour_ , were you feeling unwell before the assignment?”

El Topo just stared into the distance. “ _Dios mío_ , I’m a murderer! I killed somebody!”

“Antonio, it wasn’t your fault; if you did not shoot first, he may have killed me.” Le Chevre assured him. “VILE operatives are trained to kill people when necessary; I have killed before, and you have witnessed other operatives kill before; you are not worse than any other operative, and you are certainly not a murderer.”

El Topo broke down and began to sob. “I killed a person! A human being! He had a life, a family, and I took that all away from him! I should have shot him in the leg, or the arm; that way he would still be alive.”

“Even if you had not killed him, he was still a witness; we still would have had to kill him anyways. Besides, if you shot him in the leg, he would have burned to death in the factory instead. In a way, by shooting him in the head, you saved him from a very painful death. Let’s hurry to the airfield; the helicopter is waiting for us.”

El Topo was still sobbing about how he was a murderer, but still allowed for Le Chevre to take him by the arm and lead him to the airfield.

As the approached the helicopter, Le Chevre removed his soiled shoes and socks and tossed them in a nearby rubbish bin. He would normally be against going barefoot but considering his only other option was leaving his feet soaking in El Topo’s breakfast, ditching his shoes was an easy decision.

They sat down in the helicopter seats, and El Topo pulled his knees to his chest, still sobbing. Le Chevre did his best to try and comfort him, but his boyfriend was inconsolable.

A few minutes into the flight, Le Chevre’s communicator rang. It was a video call from Dr. Bellum.

“The assignment was a success, I presume.” She said simply. “That, or the factory is burning down for some other, unknown reason.”

“We were successful.” Confirmed Le Chevre. “The factory was burnt to the ground, and the only witness was dealt with.”

She grinned. “Wonderful. Hand your device to El Topo so that I may congratulate him as well.”

Le Chevre glanced at his hysterical boyfriend, and then back at his communicator. “Uh, El Topo is not in much of a condition to talk right now.”

Dr. Bellum rolled her eyes. “Did I not tell you two to be careful with that accelerant? How bad are his burns?”

“He is not injured.” He explained. “He was the one to kill the witness, and he is taking it pretty hard.”

The scientist smirked. “Excellent; I never thought he had it in him to kill, but I guess I was wrong. For now, we will not contact you two further.”

She ended the call without another word.

About halfway through the flight, El Topo exhausted himself to the point of falling asleep. While Le Chevre was relieved the shorter man had calmed down a bit, he also worried how this would affect him in the future.

El Topo wasn’t a killer, and hardly even a criminal; he was just a sweet person who was dealt a bad hand in life, and had to make do in his situation. He wasn’t a murderer, and he certainly didn’t deserve to go through life believing he was one.

Le Chevre kissed his sleeping boyfriend on the forehead. El Topo had a long emotional journey ahead of him, but he wouldn’t have to go it alone.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The next Bits and Pieces will be about Otter Man losing his vision, and the impact it had on his and Moose Boy's dynamic.
> 
> Sorry this chapter was kinda short, but please leave a comment if you enjoyed it.


	7. Blinded

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> After an accident on an assignment causes him to lose some of his vision, Otter Man must realize that thing won't just go back to the way they were before.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Trigger warnings for this chapter: Blood, injury, vomiting, anxiety, mentioned child abuse

Moose Boy and Otter Man had never been the most successful operatives, but they weren’t _complete_ failures. VILE mostly just used them when they didn’t have any other operatives available, didn’t think an assignment was worth sending a more skilled operative, or if the assignment was something most operatives would object to, thinking it was beneath them. Either way, the two had their place in VILE.

Dr. Bellum rubbed her temples, feeling a headache coming on. She had discovered that a company had somehow stolen a great deal of her technology and needed to be punished in the harshest of ways. Unfortunately, her choices for operatives to send were limited.

Either Crowley or Neal would have been an ideal choice for such an assignment-Neal for his stealth abilities, and Crowley for his commitment to destruction and fire-but the two of them had been sent out on an assignment together a few days earlier. All of the operatives that would do well with this sort of assignment were either sick, injured, or busy, and Dr. Bellum was low on options.

Realizing she would have to send out Moose Boy and Otter Man, two operatives who were far from skilled enough to complete an assignment like this on their own, she let out a groan. She could have Data disable the security system remotely and provide electronic support, but the two men would be on their own to place the explosives and escape before they went off.

Realizing she had no other choice; she summoned the two operatives to her office.

“Under normal circumstances I would not ever _think_ to send you two on an assignment of such importance.” She told the two Swedes. “But it looks like in this case, I do not have any other options. Nevertheless, I will still expect the same level of competence from you as I would any of the operatives I originally wanted to send.

“I have recently discovered that a company in Spain has stolen a great deal of my intellectual property, and while I have no idea how they have accomplished such a task, they must pay for their actions. Because they have already recreated my technology, and likely have backups of it, this is not a case where I can simply have Data hack into their networks and destroy everything that way.

“You two will be tasked with placing bombs in strategic locations within the building, activate the detonator while still in range, and flee as far as possible from the laboratory before the countdown runs out. Data will provide support by deactivating the security system and providing you with the locations in which to place the explosives, but most of the work will be up to you. Do you two understand?”

Otter Man nodded. “We will not disappoint you, Dr. Bellum.”

The scientist rolled her eyes, the two did not have the best track record. “Dully noted. The helicopter will be leaving from the airfield in exactly an hour. Prepare yourselves quickly, and do not be late.”

“Gee, Sven, Dr. Bellum didn’t seem so confident in us.” Observed Moose Boy. “Maybe its because we failed our last two assignments.

“ _No_ , its because we’re Swedish.” Otter Man replied sarcastically. “Of course, its because we failed our last two assignments, dumbass! But this time is going to be different. If we can successfully complete this assignment, we’ll no longer be the laughingstock of VILE.”

“I dunno, Sven, the assignment sounds really hard.” Replied Moose Boy. “This seems like something Alistair would be better at.”

Ever since the incident two years ago, Otter Man had held a deep hatred towards his former friend. While Crowley had been doing his best to get Otter Man to forgive him, the Swede still got angry ever _talking_ about him.

“Everybody thinks that psycho is so great just because he’s a remorseless killing machine.” He grumbled. “That doesn’t make him a good operative; it just makes him a danger to all of us if we dare get in his way.”

“You shouldn’t be so hard on him for what happened.” Argued Moose Boy. “He was really upset about Devon’s death, and didn’t know what to do with those feelings. One of these days, you’re gonna have to forgive him.”

Otter Man crossed his arms angrily. “He fucking tried to kill us. I’m not going to forgive him now or ever.”

Their differences in willingness to forgive most stemmed from their upbringing. Moose Boy had a fairly good childhood, and while his parents died before he joined VILE, he hadn’t been involved in as much criminal activity as other operatives had been before joining VILE. Most of his appeal as a potential operative came from his strength and rather successful career as a minor league hockey player.

Otter Man, on the other hand, was quite the opposite. His parents were abusive drug addicts who abused the system and only saw their kids as a way to profit off the government. Otter Man had spent a great deal of his life protecting his younger brothers in any way he could, from stealing for them, to taking the fall for things they had done, until he ran away at the age of 15. It really wasn’t much of a surprise how untrusting he was.

Moose Boy sighed, he wasn’t the smartest person, but he still knew better than to push the issue. “Fine, Sven, you don’t need to forgive him. I was just saying he’s usually the person that gets sent on these types of things since they involve a lot of fire and death, but I’ll drop it. Let’s just focus on getting ready for the assignment; we don’t have a lot of time.”

Otter Man muttered something under his breath, but Moose Boy couldn’t hear what he was saying.

The helicopter trip was quiet, even quieter than usual. Otter Man was never a talkative person, but Moose Boy would still try to keep a conversation going. This time, however, both men hardly spoke. They both knew they probably weren’t going to do well on an assignment of such high caliber, but neither said a thing about it. Otter Man had been trying to convince himself that maybe _this_ would be the time they finally came out on top, and Moose Boy was pretty sure whatever he said at this point would be the wrong thing.

Data had sent them a map of the facility and was planning on utilizing the tracking features in the communicators to guide them through the labyrinth of a lab. While she was a close friend of theirs, it was clear that she did not believe they would be successful, even if she didn’t say anything.

At first, the assignment was going better than expected. Data had also hacked into the security cameras and was using them to find the path of least resistance, while making sure they were turned away when Moose Boy and Otter Man passed by. The two of them had split up to cover more ground and had successfully placed most of the bombs.

One of the last rooms Data had directed Otter Man two contained a giant laser. The room made her uneasy, as unlike the rest of the building, it didn’t have any security cameras inside, and she only knew what the room looked like from how it was described to her.

“Sven, be very careful.” She warned. “I don’t like the feel of this place.”

“Heidi, its fine.” He told her. “The rooms empty except for this stupid laser.”

“Lasers are dangerous.” She reminded him. “Remember when we were students and Dr. Bellum showed us how to cook popcorn with a laser. If that thing goes off, you could be dead so many times.”

Otter Man rolled his eyes, knowing Data wouldn’t see it. “I know what happened to you the last time you went of an actual assignment was terrifying, but I doubt anything like that will happen to any of us again. Check in on Henrik; make sure he’s in the right place.”

Data already knew that Moose Boy was in the correct location-her monitor displayed both of their locations-but she pretended to be focused on that instead. All of a sudden, she heard a strange noise, like a device gathering power. At first, she assumed it was something in her house, or simply her imagination, but as the noise grew clearer, she knew she was not mistaken.

“Sven!” She shouted. “Get out of there now!”

But she was too late. The laser fired a beam that bounced off the wall and hit Otter Man square in the face. He fell to the ground, screaming. Data did her best to disable the laser remotely as quickly as possible, knowing a direct hit could be fatal. If Moose Boy went to rescue his fallen partner while the laser was still active, the results would be disastrous.

“Sven!” She yelled, desperately listening for any sort of response. “Sven, answer me! I need to know that you are alive!”

Otter Man had stopped screaming, only giving a pained moan.

Data knew he probably wasn’t going to get up and leave on his own, so she quickly switched communication channels to the one she had Moose Boy on.

“Henrik, something very bad has happened to Sven.” She told him. “He took a hit from a laser; the only reason he’s not dead is because it bounced off a wall first. You two have placed enough of the bombs to blow this place to the ground. Go get Sven, activate the detonator, and get out of there. I deactivated the laser, but still, be careful.”

She quickly guided him to Otter Man’s location. A security guard was blocking one of the hallways, and Moose Boy was so focused on rescuing Otter Man that he cold clocked the guard without a single thought.

Data hadn’t been able to tell him what exact condition Otter Man was in-only that the laser had fired, he’d screamed and fallen to the ground, and now he wasn’t responding-so Moose Boy was horrified when he found his injured partner. Otter Man was unconscious on the floor of the lab, and bleeding heavily from his eyes. Moose Boy let out a shocked gasp, which Data immediately picked up on.

“What is it?” She demanded. “He’s not dead; I can still hear his breathing! What the fuck is it?”

“His eyes; they’re bleeding.” He muttered. “Is he gonna be alright?”

Data had no idea; she wasn’t a doctor, but she knew the laser must have bounced off something to not just kill him.

“The laser didn’t hit him directly; this is survivable.” She tried to assure him. “I will alert VILE to have Dr. Vess standby for when you return to the island. Set of the detonator and get the hell out of there. For now, just get to the helicopter; we’ll figure out if there’s anything we can do for him then.”

“Will his eyes be okay?” Moose Boy asked.

Again, Data didn’t know. “I’m not a doctor; just set of the detonator and get to the helicopter.”

Tossing Otter Man over his shoulder, Moose Boy activated the detonator and sprinted for the exit. They had ten minutes; more than enough time for Moose Boy to get far enough away from the blast radius. Just as he reached the helicopter, the building exploded into flames behind him.

Moose Boy sat down on one of the seats of the helicopter and pulled Otter Man into his lap.

“He’s hurt bad.” He told the pilot. “We need to get back to the island immediately.”

The pilot didn’t say anything, but soon enough they were in the air. Suddenly, Otter Man began to shift in Moose Boy’s lap. He slowly tried to open his eyes, but quickly shut them and began to panic.

Moose Boy tightened his grip on his partner. “Sven, you’re going to be okay. We’re heading back to the island right now, and Dr. Vess is going to fix your eyes for you. But, we did it; we completed an assignment that nobody thought we could.”

“I’m blind!” Shouted Otter Man struggling in Moose Boy’s arms. “Henrik, I’m blind!”

“Shh, Dr. Vess is going to fix your eyes; you’re going to be okay.” Moose Boy tried unsuccessfully to calm his panicking boyfriend. “You need to calm down; you’re going to hurt yourself thrashing so much.”

“VILE’s going to mindwipe me.” He sobbed. “I wasn’t even a good operative before, and now I’ll be blind, too. What use would them have for a blind operative?”

“Sven, everything will be okay; I promise.” He assured the smaller man. “Data says you were really lucky because the laser must’ve bounced off of something, otherwise it would’ve killed you.”

Otter Man didn’t seem to be listening, and kept sobbing about how he was blind, and how VILE was going to mindwipe him. Moose Boy spent the whole helicopter ride trying to soothe his understandably shaken partner, but to no avail.

Otter Man eventually exhausted himself to the point of passing out and was asleep when they landed.

Dr. Vess, along with a few other members of the VILE medical staff were awaiting their arrival at the airfield. As much as Moose Boy didn’t want to let his partner go, he knew that Otter Man needed surgery right away if they wanted to save his eyes, so he placed the smaller man on the waiting gurney without argument.

He followed them to the infirmary, where they were separated. Moose Boy was checked over for injuries, and after he was found to be fine, was led to a waiting area outside the operating room. Moose Boy didn’t sleep, or eat, or really do anything while he was there. He was just too worried.

Moose Boy spent the rest of the day in that waiting area, and the entire night, too, for any word on Otter Man’s condition. It wasn’t until early the next morning when Dr. Vess stepped out of the waiting room, looking physically and mentally exhausted. Moose Boy instantly stood up when he saw the doctor.

“How is he?” He asked anxiously. “Is Sven blind?”

“The damage was severe, but he’s not blind. Yet.” Replied Dr. Vess. “His eyes are reacting to light, which means he has some vision; however, we cannot tell how much just yet. Like I said before; his eyes were badly damaged, and while we did everything we could, he will certainly have at least some degree of vision loss, and within ten years, he will likely be completely blind.”

“Can I see him now?”

Dr. Vess shook his head. “We’ll be moving him to inpatient care shortly, but he won’t be waking up for a while. I have also been informed that you haven’t moved from this area the whole time he was in surgery. Go eat a decent meal, take a shower, and sleep for at least five hours. After you’ve done that, come back here and the receptionist will show you where his room his. Don’t make this harder on the medical staff by not taking proper care of yourself.”

Moose Boy nodded. “I’ll keep healthy, I promise. I don’t want to catch something and get Sven sick.”

“Good, and one more thing.” Said Dr. Vess. “In order to keep him as calm as possible for the time being, you are not to make him aware of how severe the damage was. If he asks, you can tell him that he will be able to see after the bandages come off, but you are not to elaborate, understand?”

“I understand.” Replied Moose Boy. “Can I tell him that we successfully completed our assignment?”

“That would be fine.”

Without another word, the doctor walked away, presumably to go eat and sleep himself.

After a meal, a shower, and a long nap, Moose Boy headed back to the infirmary to see Otter Man.

The smaller man looked terrible. He was much paler than normal, he was hooked up to a heart monitor and an IV, and his eyes were hidden by bandages. He likely wouldn’t be leaving the infirmary any time soon.

Moose Boy gave his unconscious boyfriend a quick peck on the cheek, before taking a seat in the plastic chair next to him.

Moose Boy hadn’t even realized he’d fallen asleep, until he woke to the sounds of Otter Man’s panicked screams. Waking up in a strange place without being able to see had understandably upset him.

“Sven, I’m right here.” Said Moose Boy, pulling the smaller man into his arms. “You’re going to be okay; you’re in the infirmary, and you had to have surgery. Everything will be just fine; I promise.”

“I can’t see!” He screamed. “Oh god, I’m blind! I’m blind!”

Otter Man began to hyperventilate, and Moose Boy knew that his boyfriend was having a panic attack, as this wasn’t the first time it had happened. He helped the smaller man into a sitting position so that he could breathe a bit easier.

“Come on, Sven, deep breaths.” He said rubbing soothing circles into Otter Man’s back. “You can push past this; you’ve done it before. You just have to breathe with me.”

A few minutes later, Otter Man had calmed down to the point of being able to breathe normally again. He was, however, still visibly upset.

“I need to talk to Dr. Vess now.” He told Moose Boy. “I have to know if this is going to be permanent or not.”

“He told me that since your eyes were still reacting to light, that you’re not blind.” He explained. “Besides, Dr. Vess is probably busy with another one of his patients. And even if he’s not, he was performing surgery on you for a really long time, so I think he deserves a rest.”

Despite his eyes being covered with bandages, Otter Man still attempted to get out of bed. “You bring him to me, or I go and find him myself.”

“Calm down before I have to sedate you.” They both turned to see Dr. Vess standing in the doorway. “We were able to save your vision, and in about a week, we can take the bandages off.”

“So, my vision hasn’t been affected at all?” He asked.

“I never said that.” Replied Vess. “The damage to your eyes was severe, and while you will still have some vision, you won’t be able to see nearly as well, however, we won’t know how much of your vision you’ve lost until we can remove the bandages.”

Otter Man began to hyperventilate again. A mostly blind operative would be just as useless to VILE as a completely blind operative; they would mindwipe him for sure.

Before Moose Boy could get him calmed down, Dr. Vess simply pulled out a syringe, and sedated the panicked operative, who was soon unconscious.

“While I do understand that a lot of this is probably caused by the stress of the situation, is his anxiety still as bad as it was when he was still a student?” Asked the doctor. “During his last physical, he told me it wasn’t an issue anymore, but I highly doubt that.”

Moose Boy gave a nod. “ _Ja_ , if anything, his anxiety has gotten worse, but anytime I bring it up, he yells at me and tells me that he doesn’t have anxiety. I want to help him, but he won’t let me.”

“So, I’m guessing the possibility of putting him on anti-anxiety medication is out of the question?”

He nodded again. “Sven wouldn’t take it; he’d probably yell at you.”

Vess sighed. A lot of operatives had anxiety in some form or another, and while many of them were willing to admit to it and take medication, quite a few would not. Many operatives came from a background where anxiety was seen as a weakness, and medication as a crutch. Dr. Vess had brought up the idea of anti-anxiety meds to Otter Man before, but the operative wouldn’t even _admit_ to having anxiety, so there wasn’t much he could do.

“For his own sake, I’m going to keep him mildly sedated.” Said Vess. “At least until we take his bandages off and he realizes that he’s not blind.”

For the entire week, Moose Boy did not leave his boyfriend’s side (not that he did that much, anyways). Thanks to the sedative, Otter Man was fairly calm, and spent most of the time that he wasn’t asleep snuggled up against his partner. As much as the larger man loved how affectionate he was being, he knew Otter Man usually got like this when he was stressed.

During the week, their friends had all come to visit Otter Man to see how he was doing. Neal came as soon as his assignment was over, and Data flew in from Germany, a rarity ever since she had been buried alive on a previous assignment. And while Otter Man wasn’t completely sure, he may have been visited by Crowley.

It was the middle of the night, and he hadn’t been able to sleep. Moose Boy snored softly beside him. Otter Man heard the distinct sound of footsteps and assumed it was just a nurse coming to check his vitals. The footsteps got closer, then suddenly stopped; their owner said nothing. Otter Man recognized the distinct smell of gasoline and cheap cologne. After a about a minute, he heard the footsteps once again as the person walked out of the room.

After a week, they were finally able to remove the bandages. Otter Man had been a nervous wreck the day before, even with the sedative. He knew he would be able to see, but he also knew that his eyes had been severely damaged, to an unknown extent.

It hurt to open his eyes at first, but at least he could see. Everything looked blurry, but Otter Man assumed it was just because of the surgery and would go away. It did not. Nearly a month after the surgery, he was discharged from the infirmary with a new pair of glasses and another months’ worth of medical leave.

Otter Man couldn’t wait until his month of medical leave was finally over. It had been two months since they had last been on an assignment, and he really just wanted things to go back to normal.

Dr. Vess had strongly suggested that the first mission Moose Boy and Otter Man be sent on after they were back be a lighter one, as Otter Man was still getting used to his vision. The mission in question involved them picking up a stolen painting from another operative and then delivering it to a VILE safehouse.

Because the painting belonged to a private collector, and not a museum, they would have to go to the middle of nowhere to pick it up, which meant a lot of driving. Before the incident, Otter Man would have been the one to drive, but because of his vision loss, he could no longer operate a motor vehicle, and thus, Moose Boy would have to be the one to drive.

At first, everything was going fine. As much as Otter Man hated not being able to drive, it did give him some time to catch up on some reading. About an hour into the journey, he started feeling a bit off.

Even as a kid, Otter Man never had a problem with long car rides, so he tried to ignore it. He had a bit of a headache, and was feeling a little nauseous, but he blamed this on nerves, as he’d been out of the game for two months. He turned back to his book, hoping reading would take his mind off it. Unfortunately, it didn’t seem to be helping.

“Sven, are you feeling alright?” Asked Moose Boy. “You look a little pale.”

“I’m fine.” He lied. “Just keep your eyes on the road so you don’t crash into anything.”

Otter Man’s stomach suddenly lurched, causing him to lift one of his hands to cover his mouth.

“Pull over!” He demanded. “Now!”

Without a second thought, Moose Boy pulled the car over. Otter Man had just enough time to exit the vehicle before emptying the contents of his stomach by the side of the road. As he retched, he felt a large hand gently rubbing his back.

After he was done vomiting, Otter Man felt a bit better, and assumed that he’d just eaten something bad. He wiped his mouth on his sleeve and groaned, realizing that he would be stuck with the taste of stomach acid in his mouth. Neither of them had thought to grab a bottle of water before the drive, and while he had some mouth wash in his bag, he didn’t feel like digging it out. He seriously doubted Moose Boy had any gum or mints on him, either.

“Are you feeling okay, Sven?” The taller man asked.

“Just fucking peachy.” He grumbled.

“Do you think maybe you got carsick? I heard reading in the car can cause that.”

“I did not get carsick!” He snapped. “I have never gotten carsick before, and there’s no reason I would start now. I probably just ate something that didn’t agree with me.”

“How about you just take a little break from reading?” Suggested Moose Boy as they got back in the car. “Even if you didn’t get carsick, it probably wasn’t helping. I’ll stop at the next gas station and get you some water and gum so you can get the taste out of your mouth.”

Otter Man sighed but put down his book without argument. Moose Boy rolled down the window just a crack. They had been using the air conditioning to stay cool, but he figured the fresh air might help his partner.

They pulled into a gas station about a mile down the road. Otter Man was feeling a bit better, but still felt a little sick.

“Do you want to come in with me, or would you rather wait in the car?” Asked Moose Boy.

“I think I’ll wait in the car.” He replied.

The taller man nodded. “I’ll keep the air conditioning running so you don’t get to hot.”

The customers the gas station convenience store attracted weren’t always the best people, so when the cashier spotted a large and intimidating man approaching the store, she tensed up. The place had been robbed three times since she had started working there, and she feared it might happen again.

“Hello.” She squeaked from behind the counter as he entered. “Do you need help finding anything?”

“ _Nej_ , I think I’m good.” Replied Moose Boy. “I’m just picking up some water and gum for my boyfriend since he got sick.”

The cashier nodded sympathetically. “Motion sickness can really suck, especially on long drives. We have some Dramamine up here, that might help.”

He shook his head. “Thank you, but Sven keeps insisting that he doesn’t get carsick, since this is the first time it has happened; I don’t think he would take it. Maybe I’ll get some just in case he decides to stop being so stubborn.”

Moose Boy headed to the back of the store, before coming back a few minutes later with a few bottles of water, some crackers, various snacks, a few packs of gum, and a package of Dramamine. He set the items down on the counter, eyeing a display of potato chips.

“I know this is kind of a dumb question, but are barbecue potato chips vegetarian?” He asked. “I haven’t had them since I was a kid, and I’m a vegetarian now, so I wanted to know if they were okay to eat.”

“I think the barbecue ones are cooked in chicken fat.” She informed him. “But the regular ones are vegetarian.”

He nodded, adding a bag of the plain chips to the pile. The cashier scanned and bagged the items before telling him the total. Moose Boy swiped his credit card, took the bag, thanked her, and headed on his way back to the car.

Otter Man looked half asleep when he returned to the vehicle.

“I got you some crackers, too.” Said Moose Boy, handing the smaller man the package of crackers along with the gum and a bottle of water. “Do you want to take some Dramamine? Even if you didn’t get carsick, it might still help.”

He shook his head. “I already told you; I got sick because I ate something that didn’t agree with me. I feel much better, and I’m not going to throw up again.”

“Okay, Sven, just make sure you drink your water, so you don’t get dehydrated.”

The ride was uneventful for a while, but after another hour and a half, Otter Man started feeling sick again. He tried slowing sipping his water, hoping it would settle his stomach, but to no avail. His stomach lurched, and he knew he was going to vomit.

“Pull over.” He told Moose Boy. “Now.”

Moose Boy looked at his pale and sweaty partner, and then at a sign by the side of the road that said, ‘No stopping anytime.’

“Sorry, Sven; its illegal to pull over here.” He told his boyfriend. “Do you think you can wait just a few more minutes?”

Otter Man shook his head.

Moose Boy quickly emptied the plastic bag from the gas station and handed it to Otter Man. “Sorry, Sven, this is the best I can do for you right now.”

Otter Man wasn’t exactly happy with the situation, but seeing that he had no other option, ended up vomiting into the plastic bag.

Moose Boy gave his partner a worried look. “I’ll find a place to stop as soon as I can.”

Moose Boy pulled off onto the first exit he saw. Otter Man had stopped being sick at that point, but still felt awful. He hadn’t even taken another sip of his water, not wanting to risk throwing up again.

They stopped in the parking lot of a McDonalds, and Otter Man stepped out of the car to get some fresh air and to toss the plastic bag into the nearest trash bin.

“I thought you said you felt better and weren’t going to throw up again.” Said Moose Boy. “Maybe you did get carsick.”

Otter Man shook his head. “No, I think it’s the stomach virus. Let’s just keep driving.”

“If you’re really sick, I think we should stop for today and see if you’re feeling better in the morning.” Suggested Moose Boy. “It’s already mid-afternoon, and even though we didn’t get much driving in today, we’ll have no problem getting there in two days when we’re supposed to pick up the painting.”

“Fine.” Agreed Otter Man, feeling too sick to argue. “But first thing tomorrow, we’re leaving.”

“Only if you’re feeling better tomorrow, Sven.”

After finding a motel, and getting Otter Man settled in, Moose Boy stepped outside to make a call.

 _“What do you need?”_ Dr. Vess sounded tired on the other end, but this was in no way unusual. _“Please tell me one of you idiots didn’t get shot.”_

“No, nobody got shot.” Replied Moose Boy. “Sven isn’t feeling well, though. He threw up twice while we were driving.”

_“So? He probably got carsick. Just give him some Dramamine and he’ll be fine.”_

“He told me he thinks he has the stomach flu.” Said Moose Boy. “He’s never gotten carsick before, and he doesn’t think it would start happening now.”

_“You two didn’t drive much while on medical leave, did you?”_

“ _Nej_.”

 _“I’m guessing that this new issue with motion sickness has to do with the damage to his vision.”_ Explained the doctor. _“You see, not being able to properly visually process one’s surroundings when moving, especially in a car, can often cause motion sickness. This is why sitting in the front seat and focusing on the road ahead helps. Tell him that he needs to take same Dramamine if he doesn’t want to be vomiting for the entire drive.”_

“Sven’s too stubborn for his own good; he won’t take the medicine because he doesn’t think he got carsick.” Replied Moose Boy.

Dr. Vess sighed. Otter Man really was too stubborn for his own good. _“Go find him and hand him your communicator so that I can talk to him.”_

“ _Ja_ , just give me one second.”

Otter Man was laying on the bed, flipping through TV channels, and didn’t seem to be very happy about being disturbed.

“Dr. Vess wants to talk to you.” Explained Moose Boy, handing over the device.

Otter Man scowled. “I don’t care what Henrik told you; I did _not_ get carsick.”

 _“From what he told me; it sounds like you did.”_ Replied the doctor. _“Just take the Dramamine, and if it doesn’t help, you can say I was wrong. I have other patients to deal with; don’t bother me about this again.”_

Otter Man handed the communicator back to Moose Boy and crossed his arms. “I don’t care what he said; I didn’t get carsick, and I’m not taking that stupid medicine.”

With a sigh, Moose Boy sat down on the bed next to his partner. “Sven, I know you think you can go back and have everything be the same after the incident, but its not; you’re going to have to learn to adjust.

“Dr. Vess said you probably got carsick because your vision is bad and taking Dramamine while on assignments that involve a lot of driving might just be one of those adjustments you need to make. I promise I’ll help you adapt to your vision issues in any way I can, but you have to let me help you.”

Otter Man was very much in denial about his vision issues changing anything, and felt that by not accepting them as an issue, he could just go back to the way things were. But clearly, this was not the truth. He really wanted to keep denying that he got carsick, but if Moose Boy was making too much sense right now.

“Fine, I’ll take the stupid Dramamine before we leave in the morning.” Grumbled Otter Man. “But just so you know, my vision isn’t even that bad.”

Moose Boy hugged his boyfriend close. “Thank you, Sven. Thank you for letting me help you.”

He knew it would be a long time before he could get the smaller man to fully accept his vision loss, but for now they would just take things one step at a time.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Whelp, this ended up a lot longer than I thought it would. I'll be starting on the next chapter of Scars Don't Fade and should have that done within a week or so.  
> Dr. Vess Belongs to Violetfic. Headcanon about how Otter Man lost his sight is from MangoKat.
> 
> If you liked this, as always, please leave feedback.


	8. Data

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> She had grown up behind walls, VILE was her chance to see the world.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Trigger warnings for this chapter: Violence, premature burial

Heidi Einhorn had never known her mother or brother. Then again, she hadn’t known what the world was like beyond the gate of her driveway.

“The world outside is far too dangerous.” Her father always told her. “It took away your older brother and your mother, and I will not let it take away you.”

As far back as she could remember, neither one of them had left the property; everything and everyone came to them instead. Heidi’s father was a software engineer, and he could do all of his work from home. The internet was still a bit of a novel concept in 1991 when she was born, so for a fair bit of her childhood, someone would be sent to pick up discs from their home whenever her father had something to turn in.

Instead of attending school, Heidi would be visited by a tutor four days a week. During the other three, her father would teach her coding. Everything they needed, groceries, clothes, books, it all came to them. Even a doctor and a dentist would visit the household from time to time.

Heidi had everything she needed within the safety of those stone walls. She had all the toys and dolls a girl could want, and a huge back garden all to herself, but still, she wanted to know what lay beyond her little world. She wanted to meet other people.

At the age of seven, she attempted to run away. She wasn’t planning on staying gone; she just wanted to see what the world looked like beyond the fence. Heidi’s father always left the gate locked, so he never worried about her getting out. He did, however, overlook a small hole in the bottom of the fence, the perfect size for a seven-year-old girl to squeeze her way under.

Heidi had always assumed that their house was near a town, but in reality, there was nothing but forest for miles, and she quickly found herself lost. Thankfully, a search party had been put together in the nearest town, and she was found and returned home before nightfall.

“You can’t try and run away ever again.” Her father had told her. “The forest itself is dangerous enough, but what if you had encountered someone with bad intentions? Its not bears, or hurricanes, or anything like that I want you to be worried about out there, its people. Humans are some of the most intelligent creatures in the world, thus they have the greatest intent to harm. If your mother and brother had understood this, they would still be here today.”

The fence was fixed the next day.

As Heidi grew older, computers began to play a bigger and bigger part of her life. She improved her English language fluency by using online message boards, and her father made it his mission to teach her everything he knew about coding so that she could eventually get a job with the software company he worked with. Heidi was an extremely fast learner, and immediately took to coding, but quickly grew bored with what her father was teaching her and decided to branch off a bit.

She decided to dip her toes into the world of hacking, using the various message boards she was involved in, and various tutorials she found online. It started as just an innocent curiosity. Heidi would have her online friends create dummy accounts on various website, specifically for the purpose of her to practice hacking into. Eventually, when she got really good, Heidi’s friends would have her hack their main accounts and even their PCs so that she could tell them the weak points in their security.

Eventually, Heidi decided the path of a white hat hacker was not the one for her. She found hacking into the accounts of willing participants to help them with their security was boring and felt pointless. The only issue was that she had no particular reason to hack into anything. Thankfully, there were quite a few people with things they wanted hacked. Some were even willing to pay her in crypto currency for her services, despite the fact that she was mostly doing it for fun at that point.

It started small; a social media account here, a forum page there, but eventually Heidi found herself involved in big hacks resulting in a sum totaling millions being taken from various financial institutions and companies. Those hacks were what initially attracted VILE to her.

In order to avoid raising suspicion, VILE helped Heidi convince her father that they were, in fact, a prestigious computer science university that wanted to give her a full scholarship. Seeing as his daughter was nineteen at the time, he reluctantly agreed.

Despite being almost fluent in written English, Heidi’s spoken English was subpar at best. Three of her roommates were native English speakers, and the other two were nearly fluent. Despite not being able to verbally communicate with her for a few months, they were all very nice, even going as far to provide Heidi with their notes written in English and helping her get a foothold on the spoken language in their spare time.

Heidi wasn’t particularly strong, and at 5’2”, she wasn’t exactly menacing, but she quickly found her niche. Dr. Bellum, upon realizing her potential, quickly took a liking to Heidi. Heidi was a brilliant hacker, one of the best the older woman had ever seen. It was no doubt that despite her lack of physical power, she would be a valuable asset to VILE.

While Heidi knew that she would personally graduate-Dr. Bellum had promised her that no matter what her results were for her finals, she would most certainly graduate, as she was far too valuable of an asset to lose-she did worry about some of her friends. Alistair and Devon were both strong and clever, so Heidi wasn’t worried about them. Henrik, Neal, and Sven on the other hand, were quite a different story.

Henrik, while extremely big and strong, was far from the smartest guy in the world, and it seemed likely that he would forget what information was to be kept secret in the presence of enemies. Neal was tall but lacked muscle tone. He was a bit weird in Heidi’s opinion, and didn’t find his niche with his slick suit until nearly the end of the school year. Sven was fairly smart and had good instincts, but he was too small to fight head on, and not quick enough to rely solely on stealth.

Thankfully, all of Heidi’s friends graduated along with her. She took the code name Data, as uncreative as it was. She was a hacker; that was her place.

It was understood that Data didn’t have to physically be there for a lot of her assignments. In a lot of cases, it was better if she wasn’t. Data wasn’t really strong enough to protect herself in a lot of situations, so another operative would have to cover her.

In her entire career as a VILE operative, Data had only been in the field for assignments three times. The first two times went well, and while another operative had stood guard both times, they hadn’t needed to actually fight anyone. The third time, however, went a little differently.

Her third and final field assignment took place only about a year after she had graduated. In all previous assignments she had been a part of, VILE had been stealing from normal people. This time, however, they were going after a fellow criminal.

Seeing as all her former classmates were still finding their place within VILE at that point, Data had been sent out on the assignment with her group of friends, as they worked well together. For this assignment, they would be breaking into the home of a jewel thief and steal five of his most valuable possessions. Because of the way his security system worked, Data would have to be there to hack it.

Because of the fact that having another operative to guard her the last two times turned out to be unnecessary, the plan did not account for it this time. While her friends had offered to have one member of the group stay with her in case something did happen, Data had refused, knowing it would only slow them down.

Somehow the other guards figured out that the two in the security room had been killed, and that Data had taken their place. Before she could even alert her friends that she was in trouble, they had destroyed her communicator and tied her up.

The jewel thief was less than pleased when he learned of an intruder on his property. Even less so when he saw that she wasn’t the only one. Data watched as he thought for a moment before a psychotic smirk crossed his face.

“Well, this is certainly unfortunate; six guests when I have nothing prepared.” He purred. “Oh well, guess we’ll have to come up with _something_. I’ve sure I can make this evening unforgettable for all of us. You know what to do, men.”

That was the last think Data remembered before being knocked unconscious.

When she woke up, she was in a small, dark box. There wasn’t much air, and she could barely breath. She screamed out for somebody, anybody to save her, but her cries went unanswered. Just as Data was about to give up all hope, she heard rustling above her. Suddenly, the box was opened, and was pulled from it by a woman she didn’t recognize.

“She is okay!” Shouted the woman, a German accent clearly present in her voice. “Had we been much later, I do not think she would have been.”

Data looked around. They were in a field; she could see the mansion still in the background. Her friends, along with a small pack of German shepherds stood nearby. She had been pulled from a hole, the box she had been in a makeshift coffin. Had she been buried alive?

After her rescue, Data had to spend a few days in the infirmary, just in case being buried alive had any lasting side effects. Her friends had, of course, visited her as soon as they were allowed. But on the second day, she had another visitor; the woman who had saved her before, and her pack of dogs trailing obediently behind her.

“We were not properly introduced the other day.” Said the woman. “I am Sargent Schlachten, but you may call me Franziska.”

“I’m Data, you can call me Heidi if you like.” She replied. “Thank you for saving me the other day.”

She gave a nod. “It was no problem; I was finishing up an assignment of my own in the area. The world can be a dangerous place; VILE operatives have to stick together.”

Data looked at the ground. “ _Da_ , my father always told me that the world was an unsafe place. Maybe I should have stayed with him. He was right; people are terribly cruel.”

“ _Nein_ , while it is true some people are cruel, if you spend your entire life hiding away from them, you’ll never meet the good ones.” The older woman explained. “Your friends are good people; they risked their own safety to find you. If you had never left, you would’ve never met them.”

Data smiled. “I guess you’re right. It’s just… I was taught that people only had the worst of intentions, and spent my whole life fearing the outside world. But, you kind of put things in perspective. You didn’t even know me, and yet you came to my rescue; you’re proof that good people exist in the world.”

“Hmm, if you feel that way, maybe you would not mind spending the day with me after you get out of here.”

“Are you asking me out on a date?”

“Maybe I am.”

Data knew this was the start of an entirely new chapter of her life.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The next chapter, about Blue Jay, should be up in a week or so.
> 
> As always, if you liked this, I would appreciate if you left feedback.


	9. Blue Jay

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Some backstory for Blue Jay.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Trigger warning for this chapter: Bullying

Kiara Porter’s parents had always day big dreams for their daughter ever since she was born. As soon as she could walk, she was enrolled in ballet classes, which took up most of her free time, especially when she started attending school. Her parents were very strict, expecting her to get good grades on top of ballet and kept her on a very strict health regimen. She hadn’t even tasted candy until she was in middle school.

Kiara didn’t actually mind the way her parents treated her. She enjoyed ballet and was quite talented. Even at a young age, she had participated in a lot of shows and competitions and attracted a lot of attention with her skill. It was clear she would become part of an elite dance troop in the near future.

At the age of 13, all of Kiara’s hard work over the years had finally payed off, and she was offered a place within the New York Ballet. Initially, she was excited by this, but as time went on, her interest in it began to dwindle.

She loved ballet, the grace and beauty of the human body and the skill it took to perfect but being part of such a prestigious ballet company meant she was under constant pressure. And it wasn’t just her dancing that was under constant scrutiny; the ballet had a certain look they wanted for their dancers and she had to do everything to conform to it.

Kiara had always been a thin and petite girl, but that wasn’t enough for them. They wanted her to have even more of a fragile beauty; they wanted her to be even thinner. Kiara knew better than to make herself underweight just for the purpose of being part of a famous ballet. She had always been on the thin side and losing weight just to look more fragile for a ballet was far from healthy. Much to the disappointment of her family, she left the ballet.

Despite not needing to worry about money (despite her parents not exactly supporting her leaving ballet, they weren’t about to kick her out or disown her), Kiara took to stealing from the New York Ballet. It was more out of pettiness than anything. In fact, a lot of the stuff she stole wasn’t even valuable; it was just inconvenient to have go missing. While she stole a bit of money here and there, she preferred to take little items that wouldn’t be noticed until they were needed.

Ever since she was little, Kiara’s life had been dominated by ballet, and without it, she found herself with a lot of free time on her hands. She took up stealing as a new hobby, and when that wasn’t enough, she added boxing to her schedule. While Kiara wasn’t big or strong, she was quick and nimble from her years of ballet. This meant she could easily sneak around places she wasn’t supposed to be, or dodge attacks from an opponent until they ran out of stamina, which always seemed to happen long before she did.

In reality she had no reason to steal. Her parents supported her financially and loved her enough to take care of her for as long as she needed, even if they thought she was throwing her life away. To her stealing was just a fun pastime that started out as a way of getting petty revenge. Nevertheless, her abilities attracted the attention of VILE when she was nineteen.

Seeing as Kiara couldn’t exactly tell her parents she was going off to crime school, she lied and told them she had joined an experimental dance group that traveled around Europe. Her parents were very excited by this fact, seeing as how they had pushed ballet on her for years, which only made Kiara feel worse about lying to them.

Kiara honestly wasn’t a fan of her VILE academy classmates. A few of them were actually decent, but most of them were assholes. Being that she wasn’t big or strong, she was targeted by a group of bullies in her year. This, of course, ended when she used her finesse and stamina to take down the leader of the group, thus earning her nickname Blue Jay for how she moved like a quick, little bird.

Blue Jay wasn’t exactly popular within VILE academy, but she wasn’t tormented, either. The bullying and harassment situation in her year was so bad that three students actually dropped out because of it. One student, however, despite the amount of harassment directed at him, hadn’t backed down. His name was Dashiell, but most people just called him Dash.

Dash always looked very out of place in VILE academy and seemed like he would fit in better with the cast of a musical. He was tall but he wasn’t strong, and while he was nimble, he had nowhere near the level of finesse Blue Jay had. Despite his best efforts, most people-including Blue Jay herself-were certain he would not graduate, even if he managed to make it that far.

Blue Jay wanted to be nice to Dash, she really did, but she wasn’t exactly popular as it was, and trying to befriend him would only put her back on the bullies’ radar. She wasn’t mean to him or anything; she just kind of avoided him. But still, she respected the hell out of him for staying in a place where he was so clearly not wanted.

Blue Jay wasn’t surprised when passed all her finals with flying colors. She had done well in all her classes since day one, so it wasn’t hard to believe her finals would have the same outcome. It did, however, surprise her that Dash had managed to pass, considering he’d only ever done well in one of his classes. While Blue Jay chalked up his passing to a fluke, she didn’t care as much as she was simply surprised.

After graduation, Blue Jay began distancing herself from her former classmates. Despite this, she was far from a loner, instead making friends with operatives from other years. Considering these people were criminals, and that her own year was so terrible, she was amazed by how many nice people there actually were within VILE.

As a young girl, Blue Jay had always dreamed of opening her own ballet school, but had shoved that dream aside. She was a VILE operative now and that was all that mattered.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry its kinda short, but Blue Jay doesn't have as much backstory as some of my other characters.
> 
> I'll start on the next chapter of Scar's Don't Fade on Sunday since I am working a lot tomorrow.


	10. Magpie

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Magpie was a sociopath, but in reality, it was really her only line of defense.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Trigger warnings for this chapter: Child abandonment, mental illness/disability.

To be completely truthful, Maggie thrush never really had a fair chance in life. At the age of three years old, she was handed over to the British foster system by her mother, an arrangement that was supposedly temporary, but became permanent. It was unclear who her father was.

According to Maggie’s mother, the girl would only be in care temporarily, just while her mother got back on her feet. Even when it had become obvious that Maggie’s mother wasn’t coming back, she was never listed as up for adoption. Perhaps this was a clerical error, or perhaps the foster system genuinely believed the girl’s mother was going to come back after years of no communication, ever after the young girl had given up on her own mother.

For most of her life, Maggie was bounced around between various foster families and children’s homes, never staying in one place for more than a few months. Maggie had always been small for her age and was seen as easy target by some of the other children. While she couldn’t fight back physically, she found other ways of dealing with the problem.

If another one of the children was bothering her, even if they had not physically harmed her, she would go crying to her caretakers, claiming the other child had hit her. They always believed her crocodile tears, and the other child would be punished, and she would be left alone for a while. She never felt bad for doing this. After all, at least in her mind, they always deserved to be punished, anyways.

Early on in her life, Maggie had decided that if she wanted a chance at good life, she would have to take matters into her own hands. She found she had a talent for reading people and used this to her advantage. She would lie, steal, and manipulate her way to whatever she wanted. She never felt bad about this; if she didn’t use these people first, they would just end up using her later and she had to protect herself.

By the age of thirteen, Maggie was somewhat infamous within the system. Her lying and manipulation had turned into petty crime, and she was becoming increasingly hard to deal with. She only stopped being a real problem two years later. Not because she stopped committing crimes or manipulating her caretakers, but because she learned not to get caught.

At the age of sixteen, Maggie aged out of the system. She would still be monitored to make sure she was attending school and staying healthy, and she was given an option to stay in a group home where she would be provided for until she reached the age of eighteen, but other than that, she was free to go.

While Maggie could’ve made enough money to keep herself afloat by stealing, she knew that since she was still being monitored, that would be too suspicious. She found herself a job as a window washer and moved out on her own as soon as she found a place.

Maggie’s apartment wasn’t exactly luxurious. She moved into a loft (that didn’t seem like it was even up to livable standards according to government regulations) with five other people, all of whom were artists. It wasn’t a great first apartment, but her share of the rent was extremely small, and she finally had some semblance of freedom.

While Maggie’s window washer job certainly covered her needs, she couldn’t afford the things she wanted. So, it wasn’t a hard decision to keep up stealing and manipulating her way to what she wanted.

At the age of eighteen, after years of stealing, Maggie was caught. Not by the police, but by VILE when the person she happened to choose to steal from turned out to be one of their operatives. They weren’t angry with her-more impressed than anything-and offered her a place at VILE academy. Seeing as she didn’t have much else going on, she accepted.

At eighteen, Maggie was younger than most of her classmates, and smaller than all of them. She knew that she would have to keep up her tricks if she even wanted a chance at graduating. While most of her roommates were nice to her and tried to be her friend, she didn’t trust them and fully expected them to turn on her at any moment.

She lied, manipulated, and stole from her roommates constantly, and while they didn’t notice, or believe that she had bad intentions, Professor Maelstrom had diagnosed her as a sociopath. This all came to a stop when she got a little too cocky.

Somehow, her roommate Mathew had acquired a package of Oreos, a food that was practically impossible to find on the island. Maggie, of course, had to steal them. It wasn’t a hard task; Mathew had left the cookies in his bedside drawer and didn’t even bother to lock it. Unlike every time she had stolen before, Maggie was caught red handed.

To her surprise, he didn’t seem mad at her; more disappointed with her than angry.

“If you had asked for some, I would’ve given some to you.” He said. “I thought we were friends.”

For the first time in years, Maggie actually felt guilty for her actions. She would steal from her other roommates all the time, but never Mathew before. Damion, for example, was just as much of an asshole as she was, so she never felt bad about stealing from him. Mathew, on the other hand, was different. He was genuinely nice to people, but got picked on a lot, and apparently had some kind of disability stemming from a past brain injury; he didn’t deserve to have his things taken, even in Maggie’s mind.

Guilt was a foreign feeling to Maggie; when she would steal and lie before, she always felt like the person deserved it or that she had to use them before they got the chance to use her. This feeling of regret was completely new, and it honestly made her question a lot of things. Maybe her roommates actually liked her (with the exception of Shiko, who didn’t seem to like anyone). Maybe Kaia wanted her for more than just sex.

“Kaia, I have a question for you.” She told the other woman when they were alone. “Do you, you know, actually like me, or just see me as a good shag?”

“Of course, I care about you.” She assured her. “Why are you asking me this? Did something happen?”

“Well, I, uh, sorta did a bad thing.” Replied Maggie, not actually wanting to go further for fear it would get her dumped.

“Yes, you stole from Mathew; he told me. I think he will forgive you. But how does this relate to us? Unless you are talking about another bad thing that you did.”

She shook her head. “No, that’s the bad thing I did. To tell you the truth, I’ve stolen from and manipulated people my whole life; I’ve just never felt guilty about it before. I was always afraid that people would use me if I didn’t use them first. But stealing from Mathew made me feel, well, guilty, and it made me question a lot of things. Like, if people can be good, if our roommates are being genuinely nice, and if you actually care about me.”

Kaia gave her a quick kiss. “People can certainly be cruel, I won’t deny that, but that doesn’t mean some of us can actually be good. I’ve always found the worst people to be the ones who hide behind the façade of doing what’s right or helping the greatest amount of people when they’re really just in it for themselves.

“We’ve all come here for our own reasons, but at least we’re honest with our criminal intent, which doesn’t make us nearly as bad as them. We’re all honest with our intents here, at least with each other; none of us are trying to use you, especially not Mathew. You need to learn to be honest with your friends; we aren’t here to hurt you, and we don’t appreciate being lied to or manipulated. I don’t care what you use your abilities for, just don’t use them on us.”

Maggie looked at her feet. “I know, I’m sorry; its just, well, I’ve never been very physically strong, so lying, stealing, and manipulating have always been my methods of protecting myself. My childhood was… not ideal.”

“None of ours was. Would you like to talk about it? I’m going to assume you’ve never told anyone about your past, but it might help.”

Maggie was a naturally suspicious person, and while in her heart she wanted to trust Kaia, her brain was screaming not to. “You’re not going to make fun of me, or tell other people about this, right?”

Kaia gave her hand a reassuring squeeze. “I would _never_ make fun of you for what you have gone through, and as for telling anyone else, that’s a decision for you to make. Some people can be trusted, I promise.”

Maggie told her everything. Being abandoned by her mother, the sorry state of the foster system, lying and stealing her way from place to place, all of it. To her surprise, Kaia never interrupted her, or seemed to judge her for any of it.

“I was once in the Royal New Zealand Airforce.” The taller woman explained. “Both my brother and my father had been military men, so I didn’t think I had a choice. I joined the Airforce as soon as I turned eighteen and spent nearly five years there before I became disillusioned and deserted my post, taking with me a stolen military plane. My choices were either VILE or prison, so that’s how I ended up her. We are not so different, you and I.”

Maggie suddenly got to her feet.

“Where are you going?” Asked Kaia.

“I have to go apologize to Mathew.” Said the smaller woman. “We can talk more later.”

Maggie found Mathew training alone in the gym. Despite his gentle nature, his size scared off a lot of potential training partners, and if none of his friends were available, he would usually train alone.

He gave her a smile when he spotted her and stopped what he was doing.

“Hello, Maggie.” He greeted. “What do you need.”

“Mathew, I’m, er, here to apologize.” She told him. “I’m sorry for trying to steal from you earlier. My actions were wrong, and I admit that.”

“Its okay; I forgive you.” He smiled.

She shook her head. “No, its not okay. You’ve only ever been nice to me, and I still decided to try and steal from you. The thing is I didn’t steal because I wanted those biscuits; I knew you would have given me a few had I asked. It’s a little more complicated why I lie and steal like I do.”

“I don’t get it; if you know its wrong and you don’t even want the things you’re stealing why do you do it?” Asked Mathew.

Maggie shrugged. “Like I said, its complicated. My mum gave me up when I was small, and I spent most of my life in foster care. I’ve never been able to actually trust anyone and have always been afraid that if I don’t hurt people first, they’ll end up hurting me.”

Mathew suddenly pulled her into a hug. “You don’t have to worry, Maggie, I won’t hurt you. And I promise I’ll protect you from anyone who tries.”

“Okay, thanks, but can you please let go of me?” She struggled in his grasp.

He released her from his grip. “Oh, do you not like hugs?”

“Its not that; its just that you’re crushing me.”

He chuckled. “Sorry, guess I don’t know my own strength.”

Maggie didn’t change her ways after that event, but slowly, little by little, she began to trust her friends.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The next chapter of Scar's Don't Fade should be up in a week or so.


	11. Thunder and Lightning

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Antonio is afraid of storms, but doesn't tell anyone since he doesn't want to look weak.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Trigger warnings for this chapter: Mentioned Homophobia.

VILE didn’t need weak operatives, Antonio knew that much. If he didn’t want to go back to his old life of stealing just to stay off the streets and lose all memories of his new friends, he would have to show how strong he was. Physically, he was pretty strong. He was short, but muscular, and could move pretty fast underground.

Mentally, not as much. Because of his past situation-being kicked out at the age of sixteen when he came out to his parents-he had a lot of trust and abandonment issues. Antonio was always afraid that his friends and Jean-Paul, his boyfriend, would turn their backs on him at any moment. While he felt he could get VILE to overlook these issues, he always worried his phobias would be what held him back the most.

Antonio always preferred to be closer to the ground, but he felt his fear of heights, even if it limited his potential in the eyes of VILE, was somewhat justified. If he fell from the climbing wall and didn’t hit the suspiciously thin matts, he could break every bone in his body. A lot of people were afraid, or at least wary of, heights.

The one fear he felt more embarrassed of was his fear of thunderstorms. At nineteen, Antonio was the only person he knew who was still afraid of storms. But as much as he felt this to be a childish fear, he just couldn’t seem to get over it. The loud thunder, the flashes of lightning, the way the rain beat down and threatened to drown everything, it always seemed to overwhelm him. He never told his friends about this phobia, fearing they would mock him for it.

The first few months he spent on the island were a part of the dry season. They didn’t get much rain, safe for the occasional drizzle, something Antonio was quite thankful for. But as time went on, the wet season started to approach, and the weather began to change. It was cooler outside, and cloudier during the day. The rain showers were becoming more frequent and Antonio began to fear a thunderstorm would be coming any day now.

One day, as Antonio was spending some time outside with his friends, he looked up at the sky, and seeing how dark the clouds were, began to grow uneasy. While the others didn’t seem to notice his distress, they all looked up at the sky as well.

“First real storm of the season.” Announced Black Sheep. “I thought it would never come.”

“Its been so freaking hot around here,” Said Sheena, “Maybe this storm will finally cool everything down.”

“We always got a lot of storms in France during the summer months.” Jean-Paul told them.

“Maybe we’ll even get some hail with this one.” Added Gray.

Soon the four were busy discussing thunderstorm with excitement, not realizes how distressed the whole situation seemed to be making Antonio. He wanted to find a place away from the dark clouds, either inside or underground, but didn’t want his friends to think he was a coward. Instead, he just sat with them in the grass, growing more and more uncomfortable by the minute.

Antonio was starting to think that maybe he was finally getting over his fear of storms. After all, he knew a storm was coming, and hadn’t run off to hide yet. The first clap of thunder, however, instantly proved him wrong.

He got up and ran, not knowing where he wanted to go, only that he had to get as far away from the storm as fast as possible. The buildings were on the other side of the island, and Antonio wasn’t sure he’d be able to get inside before the storm began. Thankfully, he had been doing some training earlier and still had his digging claws with him. He quickly burrowed underground, making sure to dig upwards after a while so that the water wouldn’t flood where he was hiding.

Antonio curled up against the wall of his burrow, shivering from fear. It was going to be a long night.

Even when they heard the first crackle of thunder, the rest of the group still didn’t move. It wasn’t until the rain started to come down that they decided to go inside.

“I think we should go in before this gets any worse.” Said Gray, feeling the first droplets of rain against his skin.

Jean-Paul nodded in agreement. “ _Oui,_ we do not want to get caught in the storm. Antonio, let’s go in before we get all wet.”

He got no response.

“ _Mon chou_?” He turned to where the other man had been sitting, only to find the spot empty. “Antonio? Where are you?”

Jean-Paul was getting worried. Antonio would never just run off without saying where he was going.

“Maybe he already went inside.” Suggested Black Sheep. “He probably didn’t want to get wet and headed in before us. We’ll help you look for him inside.”

That really didn’t sound like something Antonio would do, but Jean-Paul couldn’t imagine where else he would’ve gone. After all, who would stay out in the middle of a thunderstorm?

The group searched the entire building for Antonio but couldn’t find any sign of him. None of the students or operatives they asked had seen him, and as far of any of them could tell, he hadn’t been back to the dorm. Jean-Paul was really getting worried.

“We have to go back outside!” He told the rest of the group. “He must still be out there!”

The others seemed a little hesitant to go back out in the storm, but Antonio was their friend, and they weren’t going to leave him out there just in case he had become trapped or injured on his way back inside.

Sheena really didn’t want to be out there in the rain. Her jacket was already soaked through, and she was absolutely freezing. If Antonio had just stayed with the rest of the group, none of this would be happening. Just as she was about to head inside, she suddenly tripped over a large hole that she knew wasn’t there earlier.

Knowing how much Antonio liked to dig, Sheena wondered if he might have something to do with it. She didn’t really want to climb down into a muddy tunnel, but seeing nobody else around, realized it would be up to her to investigate. With a sigh, she got down on her hands and knees and crawled down into the hole.

The tunnel was quite a bit longer than Sheena had expected. She wasn’t great at seeing in the dark without her night vision goggles, but the tunnel was mostly straight and easy enough to navigate. She finally found the end of the tunnel and saw Antonio curled up by the wall.

“You better have a good reason for being down here!” She snapped. “I’m covered in mud and I broke a nail.”

When she noticed he was crying, her tone softened. “Look, I’m sorry I snapped at you. What’s wrong? Everyone is worried that you got hurt or something. Hurry up and come out so we can go back inside.”

Antonio didn’t say anything, just curled up into a tighter ball and continued to sob.

With a sigh, Sheena sat down next to him on the muddy floor of the tunnel, putting an arm around him. “You don’t like storms, do you? I don’t think I’ll be getting you to come inside until this thing is over, and I sure as hell don’t want to be down here until it stops raining. Wait here.”

Antonio clung tightly to her, giving her a frightened look.

“Relax; I’m not leaving you down here until the storms over; I’m not _that_ mean.” She told him, removing his hands from her body. “I’m just going to get Jean-Paul to keep you company down here until the storm is over, okay?”

Antonio didn’t want to be alone during the storm for even a minute, but he still gave a nod and allowed her to leave the tunnel.

A few minutes later, Jean-Paul crawled down into the tunnel. In an instant he was by his partner’s side.

“ _Mon chou_ , are you okay?” He asked with concern. “Sheena said you were afraid of storms and wouldn’t come out until this is all over. Why didn’t you tell me before? We could have got you somewhere warm inside before the storm had come.”

“I did not want you to think I was weak.” Replied Antonio. “Being afraid storms is stupid and childish. I did not want you and the others to make fun of me for it.”

“I would _never_ make fun of you for a fear.” Said Jean-Paul, pulling the shorter man into his arms. “I love you, _mon amour._ ”

Antonio gave a weak smile. “I love you to, _mi amor_.”

They spent the rest of the storm underground, wrapped up in each other’s arms.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'll have the next chapter of Scars Don't Fade up in a week or so.
> 
> As always, if you like my fic, feel free to leave a comment.


	12. Unlucky 88'

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Shadow-San's graduating class was from an older era, an era built on survivors.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Trigger warnings for this chapter: Violence, mentions of drug use, mentions of suicide, relationships between a teacher and a student.

According to what he had been told, all of the students attending VILE academy were notable criminals in their own right. Looking at his roommates, Suhara wasn’t so sure about that. Asier and Yevhen were both powerful-looking men who clearly involved in criminal activities back in their respective home countries, but Connor, Victoria, and Benjamin didn’t seem to fit the mold VILE academy had set out.

Connor seemed to be afraid of his own shadow. When Suhara had tried to greet the other man initially, he had been startled and practically jumped out of his own skin. Victoria, the only female among the group, was about average sized, with a peaceful demeanor. She had arrived with long, messy hair (cut short soon after, as to comply to the academy rules), and had a very natural scent to her. Benjamin (who Victoria had affectionately nicknamed Benji), was a British man who didn’t seem too athletic. His most distinguishing feature were his round glasses. He did, however, learn that looks could be a bit deceiving.

On their first night together in their dorm room, the group discussed how they had ended up at VILE academy in the first place. Suhara told of the sword he stole from his brother, how it had been part of an initiation right. Before VILE contacted him, he had spent some time working for the Yakuza, and they hadn’t seemed happy about him leaving them.

Asier and Yevhen’s stories were fairly expected based on their appearances. Asier was originally from Colombia, where he was involved in drug trafficking, specifically cocaine and heroin. His cartel had trafficked millions of dollars’ worth of drugs into the United States and various European countries, causing the deaths of thousands and attracting the attention of VILE. Yevhen was from Ukraine. He grew up as a street child and got involved with a gang in order to protect himself from police brutality and exploitation. VILE had contacted him right before he was to be sent to a corrupt prison for his crimes, so he didn’t have much of a choice.

Connor seemed reluctant to go into much detail about his past, but from what they could get out of him, he seemed to be a con man of sorts. When people had gotten in his way before, he had slaughtered them. This was surprising coming from such a scrawny and shaky guy, but Suhara expected no less from his fellow students, and assumed Connor’s demeanor was just a façade.

Victoria was a self-proclaimed protector of the environment, and an ecoterrorist. She had previously been the leader of a small but might group who had destroyed factories, murdered corrupt politicians and the heads of companies alike, and had destroyed dams and other infrastructure they determined to be harmful, all in the name of environmental justice. Victoria also grew, smoked, and sold marijuana, but compared to her other crimes, that was practically irrelevant.

Benjamin had been highly involved in white collar crime. He had a pretty sweet deal going, and knew that in his previous position, he was unlikely to get caught. Even if he did get caught, he understood how truly corrupt the criminal justice system was. White collar crimes did more damage than blue collar ones, they involved more money and effected far more lives. Despite this, white collar criminals were rarely punished. A blue-collar criminal could steal a thousand dollars’ worth of goods and spend the rest of his life in prison. A white-collar criminal could take ten times that amount via embezzlement and never see a day of jail time.

This wasn’t enough for him, however, and Benjamin felt he was destined for greater things. VILE had financial power and reach greater than any other organization he had ever worked for. If he were to make his way up the chain of command, there was nothing that could stop him.

None of them had really joined VILE because they wanted to; they joined to either escape the situation they were in, or because they thought they could find a better life. When you joined VILE, you had to cut off all your old friends and family, so enrolling in VILE academy was basically a sign that you didn’t have much to leave behind.

The next morning, at the ass crack of dawn, all of the students gathered in the hall of the academy to hear the Head Faculty speak. No longer were they dressed in the outfits they had arrived in, instead they all wore identical uniforms. All long hair had been cut short, all accessories not deemed completely necessary gone, just a sea of brown uniforms.

Fraulein Fuchs, a tall German woman holding a riding crop, was the first to speak.

“Today marks the beginning of yet another year here at VILE academy, another year of shaping young minds and bodies to their full potential. If you have joined because you thought this would be easy, I have some very bad news for you; VILE academy is meant to push you to your mental and physically limit. In my home country, I trained young soldiers to fight wars. I shall treat you all the same, if not harsher, than I did those young men.

“Look to your left, now to your right. I do not know how many of you are out there, because I did not bother to count, but that is not the point of any of this. While we enroll a great number of students each year, but only forty of you will graduate. This is to foster a competitive spirit and give us only the best of graduates.

“If you do not know me yet, I am Fraulein Fuchs. I am the self defense teacher at VILE academy, and I will be the one transforming you from the sniveling, sorry excuses for human being that you are into mighty warriors that VILE will be proud to one day call operatives.”

The next to speak was a slender man in a lab coat.

“While it seems Fraulein Fuchs has taken a fair bit of the limited time we have this morning with her rambling, the rest of the Head Faculty still have to introduce ourselves before we can get on with the day.” He told them. “I am Dr. Icarus, and I teach support equipment. As a scientist and inventor, I’ve come up with quite a few tools are gadgets to help our operatives out in the field, and my class focuses on learning how to use those devices.”

The next to take the center stage was the youngest of the group, an albino man that most of the students found to be a bit unsettling.

“Greetings, I am Professor Gunnar Maelstrom.” He introduced himself. “While I am the newest addition to the Head Faculty, having been here for only two years so far, my skill and experience speaks for itself. I teach psychological manipulation. An important aspect of being a good thief is the ability to get into the mind of your enemy. Thievery isn’t so much about brute strength as it is about intelligence.”

The next speaker was dressed in a fancy outfit that looked like it would be more appropriate at a renaissance fair. He had a sword attached to his belt, but it appeared to be more for decoration than for actual fighting.

“I am Baron Gladio, Head Faculty member and professor of upper-class evil.” Said the man. “Like Professor Maelstrom said, evil isn’t just about being strong, but so much more. It is important to keep up appearances at all times so that your enemy does not grow suspicious. Beyond keeping your cool, my class teaches students how to be cultured and refined, and how to tell fake luxury items and art from the real deal.

“Normally, Wolfe would be here with us, but I guess he feels he is too good to be here for orientation.” He said, motioning to the empty spot next to him. “He teaches stealth 101, and this is quite typical for him; don’t expect him to be in class every day. Well, I guess that about raps things up. Take the rest of the day to become acquainted with your fellow students and the facilities here on the Isle of VILE and prepare yourself for tomorrow when classes officially begin.”

After they were released, the students all headed off in various directions. Asier and Yevhen headed off to check out the training facilities, Benjamin decided to go take a look at the classrooms, Connor seemed to just disappear in the crowd, and Victoria headed out to explore the natural landscapes of the island. Seeing that all his roommates had gone off on their own, Suhara figured it would be best if he got acquainted with his new surroundings as well.

While exploring the building he found the door to a classroom labeled _Stealth 101_. Seeing as the professor for said class wasn’t there that day, he decided he would take a peek inside and see what the classroom looked like. The door was locked, but surprisingly easy to pick.

Behind the door, he did not find the standard classroom design he was expecting, but an elaborate room that looked more like a place you would watch an orchestra perform, than a place where stealth would be taught. There were no desks, only a few rows of chairs facing a screen. An elegant chandelier hung from the ceiling, and two marble statues stood on either side of said screen. Suhara was starting to wonder just what kind of guy this Wolfe fellow was.

Hearing someone coming from down the hall, he quickly shut the door, pretending to be just taking a look around the hallway like a lot of students were doing. Even as he headed off to a different part of the building, Suhara couldn’t stop thinking about the mysterious stealth teacher. What kind of person would teach stealth in such an elaborate classroom, and why had he chosen to skip orientation?

Everyone met back up at lunch. Seeing as none of them had time to make any friends, the roommate group ended up all sitting together. The food was terrible, bland and burnt, somehow leaving a disgusting aftertaste despite its lack of flavor. Suhara poked at his food-some sort of pasta dish-uncertainly, not sure if he dare eat it. The others, however-with the exception of Benjamin-all had no qualms about the food, digging in straight away.

Benjamin gave his roommates a look of pure revolution as he saw them devouring their food without the second thought. “Honestly, how can any of you eat this slop. I swear, I just saw a piece of my pasta move on its own.”

Yevhen shrugged. “As a child, I would often have to eating rotting food just to survive. You have had a very easy life if you think this is bad.”

“Its certainly not the worst thing I’ve ever eaten.” Said Victoria.

“Food is food.” Agreed Connor.

“It is terrible, but I have learned to take what I can get.” Added Asier.

“Well, I am certainly not eating this slop.” Said Benjamin, turning up his nose. “I will wait until dinner to eat.”

Victoria chuckled. “Honestly, Benji, do you really think the food is gonna magically improve by dinner time? For breakfast they gave us stale granola bars, and we didn’t get anything at all last night.”

“At least those granola bars were sealed, and I knew for a fact that no bugs had gotten in them.” He grumbled.

As the group continued with their meal, Victoria suddenly pulled a fully cooked cockroach out of her food. To everyone’s surprise and disgust, instead of being horrified, or even tossing the create aside, she ate it without a second thought.

Victoria gave a shrug as the rest of the group stared in horror. “Hey, cockroaches are edible if you cook them, so its extra protein. They actually taste weirdly like chicken. Vermin live everywhere on tropical islands, so don’t be surprised if you find one in your food later.”

Benjamin stood up. “That’s it, you people are absolutely disgusting. I will be in the library until curfew.”

After he left, everyone just continued eating as if none of it had happened.

The first few weeks of classes were absolute hell. Fraulein Fuchs’s training activities were taxing at best, and downright dangerous at worst. Quite a few students were sent to the infirmary daily for the injuries sustained in her class, and she had the habit of smacking anyone she thought wasn’t putting in enough effort with the riding crop she always carried. Within the first two weeks of classes, one of her training exercises actually resulted in the death of a student.

In order to train them to stay afloat in the water if they were to fall off a ship or something of the like, Fraulein Fuchs had them tread water in a line while passing buckets of water of their heads. The activity was grueling, and one student who wasn’t strong enough of a swimmer, sunk. By the time someone noticed what had happened and pulled him to shore, and Victoria (who now went exclusively by Bobcat) performed CPR, it was already too late.

The Head Faculty treated this death as not that big of a deal. There were no announcements, no, assemblies, nothing. A student had died, and it was hardly talked about at all. In fact, within about a week of the incident, most people seemed to forget that he ever existed at all.

The rest of the Head Faculty, while not as dangerous, seemed no less harsh. Baron Gladio had made Connor stand on the roof of the school reciting poetry for hours all for the crime of simply mispronouncing a word (although they had to admit, the guy did seem a bit less jumpy after the whole ordeal). Professor Icarus liked to use students for human experiments, often as punishment for being disobedient or doing poorly on a test. They had only met Wolfe once so far, and while he was strict, he treated the students much less cruelly, and only gave them some stealth exercises to practice for homework.

The group was seeing Benjamin less and less outside of classes. Professor Maelstrom had developed an apparent fondness for the student, and the two seemed to spend quite a bit of time together. Suhara felt he was the only one who saw issue with the relationship.

As far as anyone could tell, the relationship was perfectly consensual, and since they were both adults, nobody else seemed to have an issue with a teacher dating a student. Asier and Yevhen thought it was Benjamin’s business only and that they should not get involved, Connor didn’t exactly appeared to have the healthiest views on relationships so saw no issue, and Bobcat thought it was no worse than what she was doing with other students.

“I’ve had sex with most of our roommates, including you, Suhara, along with a few other guys, and one time the weird dentist.” She told him. “You don’t have a problem with what I’m doing, so why do you have a problem with Benji’s relationship? Is it because he’s gay?”

“First of all, stay away from the weird dentist.” Replied Suhara. “Second, I have no problem with Benjamin being gay; my issue is with him being in a relationship with a member of the Head Faculty. I am afraid Professor Maelstrom might be taking advantage of his position of power. I would feel the same if he were in a relationship with Fraulein Fuchs or if you were in a relationship with a Head Faculty member.”

Bobcat chuckled. “Who in their right mind would fuck Fraulein Fuchs? I mean, have you seen her? She looks like the offspring of a warthog and a rhinoceros.”

Bobcat was smart enough, did well enough in classes, and had some medical knowledge that meant she would sometimes help out in the infirmary for extra credit, but she had a lot of trouble taking most thing seriously. When she thought something to be an issue, she could be serious, but it was clear she didn’t see the relationship between Benjamin and Professor Maelstrom as a problem.

As the months went on, everybody was getting more used to the harsh teachings and high expectations of VILE academy. They found more ways to deal with the stress of schoolwork, mostly by getting drunk and partying on the beach with alcohol (and occasionally marijuana) provided by the operatives that would sometimes visit. When another student had died, this time from an infection caused by an untreated wound, she was forgotten even more quickly than the last student.

More and more students were coming up with their codenames or receiving them from faculty or other students. Suhara was given the name Shadow by Wolfe because of his stealth abilities, Connor got the name Blackjack because he was not only a trickster, but a skilled card player as well and had mostly come out of his shell at that point, and thanks to his abilities on the shooting range, Yevhen had been given the name Sniper.

As the school year was coming to a close, and the time of finals were upon them, all the students began to stress about if they would graduate or not. Only forty students were allowed to graduate a year, meaning some would be left to either repeat all their classes again the next year and hope they would graduate, or go back to their shitty lives. There were 45 students left in their year after a third death caused by one of Dr. Icarus’s experiments (he claimed it was caused by a preexisting condition the student had, but not everyone believed him), so while the odds weren’t terrible, there would still be five students who would not graduate.

At this point, everyone had gained a code name. Asier was now El Cuervo and Benjamin was now Roundabout. Everyone was either terrified that they wouldn’t graduate or confident in their future at VILE. Shadow personally wasn’t worried; he was at the top of his class and would pass his exams with ease.

The final exam results were nothing unexpected. Their entire group passed. Nobody really felt sorry for the five students that didn’t graduate; the general consensus was that all five of them were complete and utter assholes. One of said students had attempted to intimidate Blackjack at the beginning of the year, back when he was still meek. When cornered, he had lashed out and broken his aggressor’s arm. He was mostly left alone after that.

Right after graduation, Roundabout left to work undercover in the British government. Everyone else stayed behind on the island, but with the frequency of their assignments, it was far from their home.

Eight years after they had graduated, El Cuervo and Sniper were killed on an assignment along with a few other operatives after the helicopter they were in was shot down be enemy forces. Because of the location of the crash site, no part of the helicopter could be recovered. The Head Faculty would give no explanation on why something like this had happed in the first place, only that the information surrounding the heist was on a need to know basis.

After learning the news, the four surviving members of the group met up at a pub outside London for drinks. Back when they had been students dealing with the pressure of classes had gotten to them, they had learned to use alcohol to cope, and this was no different. It wasn’t the healthiest coping mechanism, but nobody knew how to better deal with their emotions.

Four years later, Shadow would go on to kill Wolf under the orders of the Head Faculty and replace him, taking on the new name Shadow-San. Everyone had liked Wolfe, but he had been a traitor. Everyone was told about Wolfe’s plan to leave VILE, so Shadow-San killing him had been out of necessity.

Eight years after that, death struck the group once more. Roundabout had been communicating with them less and less, and with Shadow-San being constantly busy with his Head Faculty duties, it was as if Blackjack and Bobcat were the only members of their group left. The two operatives had developed a relationship of sorts, purely sexual in the eyes of most. Bobcat had gotten hooked on pain pills after a surgery and wasn’t in the best state of mind after working for VILE for so long. Blackjack had been damaged from the start.

Blackjack had wanted to take their relationship further, and had proposed to Bobcat, telling her they could be married in secret and nobody would even know. Bobcat had refused; not only was this very much against the rules of VILE, she just didn’t see him that way. She enjoyed the sex and his company; she just didn’t love him.

Blackjack seemed to initially take the rejection just fine. Sure, he seemed a little bit dejected, but it didn’t seem like something he wouldn’t be able to accept. He hadn’t been emotionally strong when he’d initially joined VILE, but Bobcat had figured he was doing much better now. This would inevitable be proven wrong in the most extreme of ways.

Blackjack appeared to be okay when he headed out on his next assignment. But instead of poisoning the target like he was supposed to, Blackjack did something out of character, and challenged his enemy to a game of Russian Rolette. He lost; both the game and his life.

Bobcat was understandably devastated, blaming herself for the incident. She decided to cope the only way she knew how, getting drunk with her remaining friends. Roundabout found time to go out drinking with her, but Shadow-San did not.

“I am too busy.” He had told her. “While Blackjack’s death has had its effect on all of us, drinking the pain away is not a healthy coping mechanism. I am aware that I cannot stop you two from grieving in your own way, I am afraid I can no longer be a part of this tradition.”

“Oh, come on, Suhara, please?” She begged. “Its gonna be so boring with just Benji there, and besides, you know we fight when its just the two of us.”

“You two need to learn to act like adults without me playing peacekeeper all the time. I know that the both of you have matured over the years; everything will be fine.”

Oh, how wrong Shadow-San was. Bobcat and Roundabout faced off in a drinking contest, and both got completely plastered. After getting kicked out of the pub, an argument broke out between the two of them and a fight ensued. Bobcat managed to cause some damage to the muscle and bone of Roundabout’s leg, and both were too drunk to notice the extent of the injury. After spending the rest of the night stumbling around looking for a bartender stupid enough to serve them, Roundabout’s leg was further damaged, and even after a surgery, he ended up needing a cane for the rest of his life.

Shadow-San knew it probably hadn’t been the best idea to leave the two operatives to go out drinking alone, but in his defense, they really should have known better. Neither was known to handle alcohol particularly well, and they should have both been mature enough to make better decisions.

Five years later, after Bobcat’s supposed death, Shadow-San and Roundabout stopped communicating. They didn’t continue the tradition of going out drinking to celebrate the life of their fallen comrade, they didn’t even talk about her death. They just distracted themselves with their own lives, and that was it.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'll start working on the next chapter of Scar's don't fade soon. Can't really promise when it will be done, as I've been working anywhere from 22-35 hours over the last few weeks and the amount of time I have for writing varies.


	13. Otter Man

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Otter Man's past, and how and why he ended up with VILE.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Trigger warnings for this chapter: Child abuse/neglect, violence

For his entire life Sven had always wondered why his parents even went through the trouble of having kids if they clearly didn’t want to deal with them. They could have just abandoned him and his brothers as soon as they were born if they were just going to neglect them. As he got older, he realized that they likely only had kids to collect on the benefits given to out of work parents. He always knew his parents were terrible people but didn’t realize how bad they truly were until he was an adult.

Sven was born in 1987, followed by Edvin in 1990, and finally Magnus in 1994. From the day his brothers were born, Sven knew it would be his job to protect them, especially from his parents. Being the oldest, Sven took the brunt of the punishment anyways, but he wasn’t about to let his younger brothers suffer through what he did.

Of course, it wasn’t just the physical and emotional abuse he had to protect his brothers from, but the general neglect as well. Very little of the money meant to care for him and his brothers actually went towards them. Their parents made sure that they always had new school clothes, and fed them enough to keep them relatively healthy, but that was it. Most of the money was spent on booze and other crap it certainly wasn’t intended for.

In order to make sure his younger brothers had a decent enough life; Sven took up stealing to get them everything they needed. It stated with just food, a few packaged snacks here, a couple of pieces of fruit there, just enough to kill the hungry feeling the three of them had from being feed just slightly less than what they needed to feel full.

As time went on, however, he started to steal more and more. He stole toys so his brothers could have decent birthdays and Christmases, stole books so he could spend more time studying. Despite his home life, Sven was at the top of his class. He was hoping this would allow him to skip ahead a grade or two so that he could get a job and support his brothers as soon as possible. Even when he was still in primary school, he was already planning how he and his brothers could eventually escape their home life.

Although he did his best to keep from attracting any attention from store clerks-he knew what would happen if his parents ever found out about the stealing-there was one time where he did get caught. Sven was eleven at the time, and during one of his breaks from school. His parents had been seemingly forgetting to feed their sons more often than not, and after having not eaten for a few days due to giving the few meals he was actually served to his brothers so they would not go hungry, all Sven could think about was food.

Sven knew he shouldn’t have attempted to steal while the convenience store he was in was empty, all except for the cashier and himself. Under normal circumstances, he would wait until the place had a few other customers, and the cashier was occupied with them, but he was too hungry to wait; all he could think about was food, and his mind was clouded with hunger.

As he was shoving a packaged snake cake in his pocket, the cashier spotted him. He tried to make a run for it, but she was faster, grabbing him by the arm before he could escape. The arm she managed to grab just happened to be covered in a large, sore bruise he had gotten for talking back a few days ago, and when she touched it, he cried out in pain.

“What’s the matter with you?” Demanded the woman. “I didn’t even grab you that hard.”

She rolled up his sleeve to show that she hadn’t left so much as a mark, only to gasp in horror when she saw the sizable bruise on his arm. She had assumed this kid was another selfish, little brat that took to stealing sweets when their parents refused to buy them any, but he clearly hadn’t been well fed and was probably just looking to swipe the first item of food he could find.

Sven was suddenly shoved out the door, the snack cake still in his pocket.

“Get out of here and don’t come back!” Shouted the woman. “Next time I see you in here, I will call the police!”

Afraid of what might happen if he stuck around, he sprinted away as fast has he could manage in the sorry state he was in. Sven hadn’t even noticed the tears streaming down his face until he was already a block away.

He wasn’t completely sure why he was even crying. Maybe it was out of fear of what would have happened if the cashier had called the police or his parents, maybe out of embarrassment for getting caught for the first time in his life. Perhaps it was out of sadness for the fact that his life was so pathetic that the woman had felt bad enough to let him get away with stealing.

Feeling the last of his strength fleeting, Sven collapsed down against a brick wall in an out of sight alley way. It was unlikely that anyone would notice him hiding here, and even if they did, they wouldn’t care. Carefully, he unwrapped the snack cake and began to eat.

He only made it about two bites in when he felt too sick too continue. It was probably the combination of being starved for a few days and attempting to eat such a rich food, but his emotional state probably didn’t help. He folded the wrapped closed and slid the snack cake back in his pocket. He wasn’t planning on sharing it with Edvin and Magnus, as they had both eaten in the past few days, and he was afraid he might not have the strength to protect them much longer if he didn’t get some food inside him soon.

After taking a moment to calm down, Sven did his best to conceal the fact that he had been crying. If he came back with any obvious remains of tears, his father would likely decide to beat him for not being a real man, since real men apparently just keep their emotions inside, then get drunk and beat their children. He didn’t want to go back, but he knew if he didn’t, there would be nobody left to protect Edvin and Magnus.

Despite successfully hiding any evidence that he had been crying, Sven still suffered a beating at the hands of his father. The reason he was given was that he came home too late, but he knew this was bullshit as it wasn’t even dark out, and he would stay out far later. The real reason was, of course, that his father was drunk again and needed someone to take it out on. Sven was glad that his brothers didn’t leave the room the three of them shared much during the day, as they would likely be the ones suffering in his place.

As per usual, his mother watched on, but didn’t get involved. She rarely got physical with her children, but had no issue verbally and emotionally abusing them, and never stopped it, so Sven didn’t care about her anymore than he did his father.

Eventually, the beating ended, and Sven proceeded to drag himself back to his bedroom and collapse in the bottom bunk. The bottom bunk was technically Edvin’s (the two older boys shared a set of bunk beds, and Magnus had a separate bed), but Sven knew there was no way he was going to be able to climb up the ladder in his current condition. This was far from the first time that it had happened, and Edvin understood how severe the beatings could be, so he never complained about taking the top bunk for a night or two.

Magnus had already fallen asleep. Being only four, he didn’t really understand what was going on, and Sven hoped it would stay that way. But like with Edvin, and even with himself, he knew his youngest brother would eventually realize how terrible their situation actually was.

As per usual, Edvin was up and waiting for Sven to return. At eight years old, he could semi grasp the situation, and already understood that there wasn’t much he could do. He didn’t like seeing his older being abused by their parents like this but was too afraid to step in and try to do anything. Even if he did try to stop it, Sven would only be angry and upset if he got himself hurt.

From past experience Sven knew he wouldn’t be able to do much for the next few days. The beating was one of the worst he’d dealt with in months, and judging by the pain he was in now, he would be extremely sore tomorrow. No matter how much pain he was in, however, he refused to cry. Or at least not until Edvin went to sleep. He had to keep a strong face for his brothers no matter what.

Sven was fifteen when he finally snapped. It wasn’t so much a single incident, but the sum of all the years of neglect and abuse. The beatings, the times he went without food for days for no good reason at all, having to grow up far too quickly just so his brothers wouldn’t have to go through what he did, all of it came boiling to the surface.

Thanks to the periods of malnutrition over the years, Sven wasn’t exactly tall or muscular. But at fifteen, he wasn’t a little kid that could easily be pushed around, either. His father no longer seemed as intimidating as he once did, and when he hit Sven, all the memories and pain came back in the form of anger and rage.

It was a that moment Sven did something he never thought he would do; he fought back. He punched his father in the jaw as hard as he could, leaving the man stunned for a few seconds. Unfortunately, for Sven, the shock didn’t last and neither did the adrenaline. He was beaten to a bloody pulp, before being tossed out of the apartment along with his few possessions and told never to return or try to contact his parents or brothers ever again.

Sven wasn’t overly surprised when their neighbors didn’t so much as react, much less call the police. The walls of the apartment building were paper thin, and he knew they had to have heard what was going on for years, even if they tried to ignore it. He did, however, think there would be more of a reaction when their neighbors thew their bloody and battered teenage son out into the hallway.

Sven really didn’t want to move from the hallway floor. Everything hurt and he really didn’t have anywhere to go. But he knew if he stayed there, and his father found him, he would most likely be beaten even worse, perhaps even to death.

He had only a little money to his name, just about 44,000 Swedish Krona to his name that he had saved up from his afterschool job in a bank account (his parents knew about neither of these things, as he knew they would just take his money if they did). He had originally been saving to try to afford an apartment for him and his brothers as soon as possible after graduation, but now this money would be used for his own survival.

Despite his situation, Sven was doing quite well for his age. Having skipped a few grades, he was fairly close to graduating. While university wasn’t too expensive in Sweden to start, he would also be able to get a lot of scholarships and financial aid due to his achievements and situation. His second to last year of his secondary education was also coming to a close, meaning he could work full time from late June to early August. He could make it; he just had to stay afloat for just over another year.

Sven felt as if he had honestly underestimated how hard it was to keep oneself alive and well, especially when trying to attend school at the same time. He had never seen his parents work much when he was young. His father had worked a few years, before quitting and going on government assistance due to _back pain_ (Sven knew this was complete bullshit), and his mother old worked the minimum amount of hours required so that her government checks would still come. In fact, they never seemed to do much besides drink and watch TV.

No matter how bad things got, Sven refused to go on any type of government assistance. Not only did he feel the system was completely corrupt if his parents could abuse it for so long, but he was afraid doing do would jeopardize the safety of himself and possibly even his brothers.

Being a minor, Sven was classed as a runaway. His parents likely hadn’t reported him missing and were probably still collecting government money as if he still lived with them (nobody had any reason to suspect he didn’t, as he still attended school like normal). If he applied for assistance, he was afraid he would be discovered to be a missing youth and sent back to his abusive home.

He was pretty sure the apartment he was renting wasn’t technically up to code. It was in a bad part of town, and the heat seemed to be broken more often than not. His apartment was little more than a shoebox with a tiny kitchen area that included a stove, a build in microwave that he had been advised against using, a sink, and a single cabinet, a small carpeted area that sorta counted as a bedroom, and a tiny bathroom.

Seeing as it was the only place he could afford and still have money left over to eat, Sven couldn’t really complain, especially considering his rent included utilities. Instead, he got used to taking cold showers, and sleeping next to the space heater that he had found by the side of the road. He wasn’t even there much, either, as most of the time he didn’t have school was spent at work, hoping he would earn enough to stop living paycheck to paycheck.

Sven’s apartment was completely barren of furniture, as it wasn’t like he could afford to buy anything. Even if he did find something for free by the side of the road, he would have no way of actually getting it up to his apartment. The building was very old and lacking in any sort of elevator, and he didn’t exactly have any friends or family to help him move it either.

After a long day at school followed by working until ten, Sven was exhausted. He didn’t have so much as a mattress to sleep on-only two blankets and a single pillow-but he couldn’t wait to get home and actually get some rest before having to do it all over again in the morning.

He rode the metro home, trying to ignore the looks the other passengers shot him from time to time, like he did every other night. Due to the years of on and off malnutrition, Sven’s growth was slightly stunted, making him a shorter than the average 15-year-old, and likely appeared it be a bit younger than he actually was.

He could tell people always wondered about his story, why someone his age was coming home so late after clearly having worked (he was still in the uniform for the store he worked at), but they never said anything-at least not to him. Sven could sometimes hear people whispering about him, _“He’s so young, I see him every day.”_ And, _“Where are his parents? What kind of people would let their child work so late, especially on a school night?”_ But they never asked, and he never told, so he just did his best to ignore the whispers.

Normally, when he returned home from work, Sven would have a late dinner of whatever he got cheap from the supermarket that week. Tonight, however, he was just too tired. He didn’t even bother brushing his teeth that night, only bothering to change out of his work uniform before going to sleep.

Around two in the morning, Sven was woken by the sound of someone fiddling with his apartment’s doorknob. Figuring it was just one of his drunken neighbors mistaking his apartment for their own and would knock it off once they realized it was the wrong door, he attempted to close his eyes and go back to sleep.

The noise didn’t stop, however, and after a few minutes the door swung open, and a flashlight was shone into his apartment. Sven could hear two men talking, and did his best to keep quiet and still, hoping they wouldn’t notice he was there and leave after they realized there wasn’t anything worth stealing.

“Fuck, Jesper, I told you to make sure to pick an apartment that somebody actually lived in.” Said one of the men. “There’s no point in us just picking up the shit the last tenant left behind.”

“Its not my fault that shithead still had this place listed as being rented out when nobody lived here Sigfrid.” Argued the other. “I’m not responsible for his half-assed bookkeeping.”

Sigfrid shone his flashlight around the room, stopping suddenly when the beam found its way to Sven. “Shit, there’s someone here! It’s a fucking kid! What the hell are you even doing here, kid?”

Sven was terrified but tried his best not to look it. “I live here, this is my apartment. I don’t have any money; please don’t hurt me.”

“Well, no shit you don’t have money.” Said Jesper. “This place is a dump.”

Sigfrid gave his partner a light smack. “Knock it off, smartass; we’re trying to be serious here. We’re not gonna hurt you, kid; we might be criminals, but we do have standards. What’s your name?”

“Its Sven.” He told the two men. “If you’re not going to hurt me, and you know I have no money, then why are you still here?”

Sigfrid ignored his question. “Well, Sven, what’s someone like you doing living in a place like this all alone? Don’t you have parents somewhere who are worried about you? You a runaway?”

Sven really didn’t want to disclose his family situation to the two guys that had just broken into his apartment in the middle of the night, but he didn’t think they were going to leave without some sort of an explanation.

“I’m not a runaway, the situation with my parents is just kind of complicated.” He explained. “Its just better that I live on my own than trying to go back to them. Now can you please leave? I have school in the morning.”

The two men seemed to understand.

“Jesper and I, we’re not good people.” Said Sigfrid. “But the world out there is a bad place for a kid like you. We didn’t start stealing because we were in a good place. You clearly aren’t getting enough money to support yourself, but we can help. We’ll contact you in a couple days after you’ve had more time to think about it.”

And with that, the two men left, closing, and locking the door behind them. Sven didn’t fall back asleep that night.

For the whole day, Sven couldn’t stop thinking about what Sigfrid had told him. Did he really want to join them, or was it better to make an honest living while barely getting by? Sven hadn’t stolen in years, and back then he only did it for the sake of his brothers. This time, he would be stealing for himself, but it would be for his own survival. He knew the system was broken, and if this is what he needed to do to escape his situation, then so be it.

When Sigfrid and Jesper finally contacted him again, Sven decided he would join them. After all, it would just be for a little over a year. By then, he would have graduated, and could head off to university where the scholarships and financial aid the schools he had applied to had offered him would be able to pay for not only his education but his living expenses. Just a little while longer, and he could leave the criminal life behind forever.

Sven didn’t spend too long of a time working with Sigfrid and Jesper. After graduation, he was accepted into the University of Stockholm to study zoology and no longer needed to steal to support himself. The two men wished him well in his pursuits, and while they did try to keep in contact, they eventually stopped communicating.

Thanks to his hard work, taking summer classes, and the fact that he was taking more than the recommended amount of classes, Sven was able to get his bachelors degree in zoology in just three years, and would be heading out to work on his masters degree at the age of nineteen. Sven wanted to become a marine zoologist and was able to get into a graduate program that would allow him to work at a nearby zoo with the otters and other marine mammals in order to complete his next level of schooling. Not only would he be working on his masters for the next four years, it was also a paid position that would likely lead to a full-time job afterwards. Sure, there were quicker ways to earn his masters, but this program was the way Sven wanted to do it.

Sven nervously waited by the entrance of the zoo. He was told that they would send someone to get him at eight sharp to begin his first day, and yet at a quarter past, nobody had showed up. The zoo didn’t open to the public until ten, so he was the only one around.

Just as he was about to leave, assuming he must’ve gotten the dates wrong, or maybe they just forgot about him, a man who didn’t look to be too much older than himself darted out from the staff entrance, looking as if he had been running.

“Hey, sorry I’m late.” He wheezed. “One of the stupid monkeys took my PalmPilot, and ever though these things are ancient, Dr. Holm will have a fit if I lose or break another one of these, so of course I had to go into the cage to get it back. But, of course, the monkey decided to climb to the top of the enclosure and bit me when I finally stole it back. I fell a pretty good distance, and if I hadn’t fallen into a pile of leaves, I would have gotten hurt.”

He paused for a second to take a breath. “Oh, I guess I’m rambling again, Dr. Holm says I need to work on that, and just skip to the relevant part of what I’m trying to say without making a long story out of it. You’re Sven, right? I’m Evert, and this is my second year in the program. Dr. Holms is training me to preform the duties on a general keeper, but he wants to specifically you to work with the seals and otters.”

This particular graduate program was extremely difficult to get into, so Sven was wondering how Evert got into it in the first place. The blonde man seemed to be a bit of a scatterbrain, and with so many other graduate students available, it was a wonder they decided to select him.

“It’s a pleasure to meet you.” Said Sven, trying to make a decent first impression. “I take it Dr. Holm is waiting for us?”

Evert grinned sheepishly. “Oh, right! He always gets mad at me for being late, but it’s usually not my fault. Like this time, it was the monkey’s fault.”

Evert led Sven to a gray building near the seal and otter exhibits, and through a door the read, **Zoo staff only, no visitors beyond this point.** Passed the door was a laboratory type building with various tanks, some with animals or fish inside, but the vast majority completely empty. In the middle of the room stood an older man in a lab coat working on some type of research on a laboratory table.

“Dr. Holm, I’ve got Sven here!” Shouted Evert, startling the vet.

The sudden noise caused Dr. Holm to drop the beaker he was holding in surprise, the glass shattering as it hit the table, and the liquid inside going everywhere. The man let out a string of profanity before turning his attention to Evert.

“Dammit, Boar, I told you not to do that!” He yelled. “And on top of that you’re once again late; I would fire you if I could. And who the hell is Sven? Is that what they named the new duck they’re sending us?”

“Dr. Holm doesn’t remember names; he just calls us by whatever animal he most associates us with.” Evert told Sven, before turning his attention back to his superior. “Sven’s the new guy. My da-I mean the director told you about him a couple days ago, remember? Anyways, you should probably get acquainted with him since he’ll be working under you. Oh, and sorry about the sneaking up on you thing; I’m working on that.”

So, Evert was the son of the zoo director. That explained how he managed to get his position in the first place.

Dr. Holm shook his head in annoyance. “This is why you keep getting bitten. I’m busy right now, so why don’t you show-Sten, was it-around where he’ll be working? That way I can kill two birds with one stone.”

“Okay, sounds good.” Replied Evert. “Come with me, Sven; I’ll show you the seals, the otters, the marine tank exhibit, the beavers, and all the other facilities you’ll be working with. I hope you don’t have any issues with working with the public, because a lot of our work involves visitors.”

Evert began to ramble on about fairly unimportant details, much to Sven’s annoyance. This guy never seemed to shut up, but like it or not, he would have to deal with it for at least another three year, likely longer. At least Evert seemed nice enough.

By far, Sven’s favorite of the animals we worked with were the otters. The Eurasian otters were naturally territorial creatures and had not been keen on having him in their enclosure at first. But after a while-especially since he was normally the one to feed them-they began to accept his presence. Sven would often spend his lunch break watching the creatures swim around and interact with each other, so it was no surprise when Dr. Holm gave him the nickname Otter.

Of course, it wasn’t just the animals Sven found himself getting closer with. After spending more time with him, he began to realize Evert wasn’t as annoying as he seemed. Sure, he had the habit of rambling on sometimes, but he was very sweet to both the animals and the people around him, even going out of his way to initially befriend Sven. While their bond started out as purely platonic, it wasn’t too long before Sven began to develop feelings for the blonde.

Sven had known he was gay since his first year of university and had even kissed a couple of guys. He wasn’t really ashamed of his sexuality, as Sweden was very liberal when it came to homosexuality, and the majority of the country supported at least some LGBT+ rights. Sven knew his parents would have never approved of his sexuality, but as far as he was concerned, they were dead to him, anyways.

Despite his comfort with his sexuality, Sven had never actually fallen for anyone the way he did for Evert. There was an emotional bond between the two of them that Sven had never felt before, and the feeling was more than mutual. Near the beginning of Sven’s second year they had shared their first kiss, and by the end of the year they were dating. In the third year Sven lost his virginity to Evert.

They were pretty open with their relationship, and nobody seemed to have any issue with it. The zoo director-Evert’s father-was happy that his son found someone who was both kind to him and responsible, as he apparently hadn’t approved of the guys Evert had dated before. Dr. Holm did seem a little annoyed about their relationship, however. He saw it as a distraction, saying relationships had no place in the workplace. He had no issue with a relationship between two men, though, and would have felt the same way about a heterosexual couple.

Everything seemed to be going perfect for Sven. He had a job, a boyfriend, a decent apartment, and would be getting his master’s degree in about a year and a half. Of course, things never seemed to stay on the right track for him.

The zoo had recently acquired a very rare white otter pup and its mother. The two animals had been transferred from a wildlife preserve amidst poaching concerns and had successfully been introduced into the population of Eurasian otters the zoo already had. The news of the rare specimen had traveled all over Scandinavia, and people were coming from far away to see the pup.

As per usual, Sven spent most of his time around the otters. They had gotten pups before and he always enjoyed watching the playful, little creatures swim around and play with the enrichment toys the animals were given. Of course, the rarity of the specimen also added to the novelty.

On one particular day, two of the otters had gotten into a scuffle after closing time, resulting in one of them needing stitches. Dr. Holm happened to be out sick that day, and Evert was busy with taking care of some of the other animals, which left Sven to with the injured animal on his own.

Just as Sven had finished up with the otter, and was beginning to pack up his tools, a person dressed all in black suddenly darted out of the nearby bushes and into the otter enclosure. It was clear that their target was the white otter pup.

When Sven realized that one of the few things he truly cared about was in danger, adrenaline quickly took over. Grabbing his scalpel, he dove in after the intruder, fulling intending to do whatever necessary to defend the otter pup.

Sven was a fast swimmer, much faster than the intruder, and was quick to get between the stranger and his precious otter cub. The intruder was much bigger than him, and made a grab for Sven, but he was faster, quickly jamming his scalpel in their throat before swimming to the surface for air. Breathing heavily, he climbed over the clear wall of the otter encloser and landed on the walking path on the other side.

It was only when he looked back on the scene that Sven realized the gravity of what he had just done. The intruder now floated lifelessly in the water as the otters stared on in confusion, blood clearly visible in the water around the body. Sven had just killed someone. In shock, he collapsed to his knees and vomited.

Suddenly, Evert came running up towards the otter exhibit, two of the zoo’s security guards following close behind him.

“Sven, we saw the intruder and came as soon as we could, are you okay?” Evert’s eyes shifted from Sven, to the scene behind him, and he gasped in horror. “Oh my god.”

Sven quickly stood up and ran off without another word. He could hear Evert calling for him, but he didn’t stop until he was inside his apartment, the door locked and deadbolted behind him.

Sven couldn’t believe what he had just done. He never thought he had it in him to end someone’s life, and yet he had done just that. The intruder had been planning to either steal or kill the white otter pup, but they were still a person, a person who likely had friends or family who would never see them again.

Sven didn’t sleep at all that night. Every time he closed his eyes, he saw the intruders face right before he jabbed his scalpel into their throat. He knew that as long as he lived, he would never forget that image.

For the next few days, Sven refused to leave his apartment, much less return to work. He knew people were looking for him, and he wasn’t ready to face the situation just yet. Both Dr. Holm and Evert had visited him or separate occasions, begging him to come out and face the music.

“The police aren’t blaming you for that night. They’ve seen the security tapes of the otter exhibit; they just need you to give a witness statement.” Evert had told him. “You’re not in trouble; I would never lie to you, I promise. Just please, come out here. We need to get this sorted out, and I miss you.”

Dr. Holm had been a little more direct and less sympathetic with his approach. “You’re not going to jail, Otter, but we need to get this situation sorted out. The media and police won’t leave us alone, and we’ve been understaffed with you gone.”

He had no plans of coming out anytime soon. Even if he was in the right in the eyes of the law, he had still taken somebodies life and wasn’t ready to face the guilt.

Sven didn’t want to leave his apartment, but the issue of food meant he had to. Sven had initially been planning on getting groceries the day after the incident but seeing as he hadn’t left his apartment in over a week, he was running critically low on food. While Sven was far from a big eater, he usually planed on getting groceries once a week, which meant he didn’t have much food left over when he didn’t go out.

Sven did his grocery shopping as quickly as possible, avoiding anyone who might recognize him, and returned home to his apartment, finding it not as empty as he had left it. Two strange men dressed like janitors were waiting in his living room.

Sven tried to escape, but the strangers were faster, catching him and tying him to a chair before he could even scream.

“Do not try and call for help.” The taller of the two men warned. “Or we will be forced to gag you as well.”

The other man then pulled out a strange device with a screen and some sort of camera, turning it on before holding it out in front of Sven. “Professor Maelstrom wishes to speak with you.”

A creepy looking man suddenly appeared on the screen in front of him. “Greetings. Sven, was it? I have been informed that you have managed to kill an operative I sent out. Normally I would by angered by something like this, but I am more intrigued than anything. How did you, someone so plain and weak looking manage to kill someone with such high levels of training.

“You see, I am part of the Head Faculty at a school for criminals, and we think you would be a good addition to our academy. We can offer you so much more in life than what you can get in your current situation. So, can I expect you to come to the island for the quickly approaching academic year, or would you like to spend the rest of your life returning to the place where you killed a man?”

Sven thought about it. After what had happened, he felt he could no longer go back to the zoo or be with Evert. The blonde would only ever see him as a murderer and would no longer care about him the way he did. Sven felt that this was really his only option.

“Okay, I’m on board.” He told Professor Maelstrom.

Maybe one day he’d achieve his dream of becoming a marine zoologist, but that day wouldn’t be any time soon.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Next I'll be working on a HaberZackary oneshot before betting back to Scar's Don't Fade, should have it out in under 2 weeks.
> 
> As always, if you enjoyed, please leave some feedback.


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